Essential Questions: 

• How do discussions about sameness build a sense of shared community?
• How do we explore the ways we are different from people around us?
• What are ways that people are treated unfairly?
• What can I do to make things more fair for myself and others? 

As an Early Childhood Teacher, I am always in search of a more effective way to teach anti-bias curriculum. The lessons that I have developed and taught over the years never seem to be enough. Last June I had the good fortune to attend the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice with like-minded colleagues from LREI and peer schools in the Tri-State Area. The institute was a perfect opportunity for me to learn new methods of teaching diversity and social justice in our Kindergarten. 

My experience at the institute was humbling. I reviewed and re-examined U.S. History while learning about my racial/ethnic history and where I fit in. As someone who does not identify as white, I bring a diverse perspective to my classroom. I am very open to sharing about myself with my students and peers. My experience as a 1.5 Mexican-American who learned to read and write in Spanish before learning to read in English (under the 1968 Bilingual Education Act) is different. My kindergarteners are always amazed when I share how I learned to speak English in Kindergarten, how I never attended camp when I was young, and how I experienced snow for the first time at age 18 when I moved to Upstate New York. 

Since attending the Institute, I’ve had many questions about how to develop a more effective anti-bias curriculum that would allow my kindergarteners to question who they are and how they are similar and different from their peers in a respectful and safe manner. I started by working with the Pollyanna Racial Literacy Curriculum and developing essential questions. For the past few weeks, we have been reading several picture books that help foster identity awareness. The kindergarteners have engaged in work around color as a descriptive word for how they feel and how they identify–including skin color. 

I have also wondered about how to further develop an anti-bias curriculum that allows kindergarteners to look beyond themselves and see injustices around them. Kindergarteners hear peers and adults express unfair words and take note when they make unkind gestures. For example, while reading a picture book that described foreign foods, one of the kindergarteners joyfully shared out loud the words for rice and beans in Spanish while one of her classmates reacted with a funny expression. Injustice takes place in all communities and all classrooms. It’s important to address uncomfortable reactions and comments and not brush them under the rug or lose them under the busyness of the school day. Lifelong impacts are made in these moments and students should not carry these “ouch” moments with them. 

I will continue to explore new territory as the curriculum moves beyond similiarities and differences. I hope to build a deeper awareness of justice for our students that prompts a developmentally appropriate call to action.