Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/when-all-t/5026834/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
Student: Let’s get the bad guys! Let’s put him in jail. (Students pretend to shoot guns and run around frenetically.)
Teacher: Friends, wait, stop. Who are bad guys?
Student: Bad people.
Teacher: Hang on. Let’s all sit down. Do you remember we talked about this? Who are bad guys really?
Student: People who make bad choices.
Teacher: That’s right. There are not bad people, just people who have made bad choices. We all make some bad choices, and we can always try to make better choices.
This is a discussion between 3-year-olds and one of their teachers about their fascination with “putting bad guys in jail.” This is a topic that is constantly in the news and our cultural discourse. Unpacking children’s understanding is a part of our effort to be an anti-bias anti-racist school that helps children avoid forming hurtful and harmful stereotypes about the BIPOC community.
Committing to the ABAR Curriculum
Located in a predominantly white suburb of Boston with a primarily white student population of 3- to 6-year-olds, the administration and teachers at our school wanted to think through our role in the systemic racism in our country. Can a school offer an ABAR curriculum effectively ...