Anti-bias thoughts and books...
/Hi all,
Over the last few days some small discussions around anti-bias topics have come up with a few families. Specifically discussions around racial/social justice & identity and gender identity & expression.
I feel as a community we share the opinion that these values/ideas are incredibly important. For preschool, teaching kids to think critically about these topics is the first step to creating change in our society.
Today during circle time we talked with each other about a game that has recently resurfaced in our outdoor imaginative play around "bad guys" and "taking them to police and jail." We had lots of thoughts around what makes a person "bad." We thought about making bad choices and that doesn't necessarily make a person "bad." We also thought about our societal inequities and how people might need help rather than being taken to jail. The kids had so many thoughts. We planted these seeds today and will begin to change the narrative around "bad guy/police" play, while giving the kids space to explore their imaginative play without shame.
Building empathy and understanding is what we do here. And because these discussions have come up over the last couple of days and the conversations have been fruitful, I thought I’d open it up to our community as a whole. I thought y’all might want to take a look at some of the books that we read here at school (see images below). While we were closed over the first part of Covid, I recorded and read many of these books and more aloud to students and also put them up on our Instagram page. So you will find them there too.
Thanks so much,
Jen
