In chapter one of Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria and Other Conversations about Race by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, she talks about a scenario in a classroom where a teacher asks her students to draw a Native American, and her students were clueless on what to draw. Once the teacher rephrased her instruction to draw an Indian, her students knew exactly what to do. I'm sure you can imagine the drawings that these students created.
So- I wonder, if you were to ask your students to draw a Native American, an Asian American, or ask them what they know about Africa or Mexico, what would they draw? What would they say?
Would they give you stereotypical answers? I sure hope not, but if they do, you've got some work to do!
If you haven't already, I encourage you to watch or listen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story. So many of our students have a single, stereotypical story of different groups of people and different places around the world. When I taught 4th and 5th grade, we did a study on mirrors and windows in children's literature. We defined what qualified a book to be a book or mirror and dissected a number of books and categorized them accordingly. I think it's important to know that all my students were White. After watching Chimamanda's TED Talk, I set up an activity where my students would go around and write down what they knew about different groups of people and countries. Majority of my students wrote down stereotypical "facts" about these groups and countries. We had such a great discussion about how dangerous a single story can be. I asked them how they would feel if when people met them, they associated them with a stereotype because of something they had heard or thought about them, and we discussed how those same feelings they feel, are what others feel when they hear the "facts" that my students wrote down.
These same discussions that I've had with 4th and 5th graders are the same discussions I have with Kindergartners. If children are watching these situations on television and hearing about them at home, they need to be discussed in the classroom.
After hearing the scenario mentioned in Dr. Tatum's book and current events concerning the #BlackLivesMatterMovement, police brutality, stereotyping and racism, I thought about what happens in my classroom. The groups of people we celebrate, the books we read, the questions asked, the answers given, the images we see, and the discussions we have. I purposely teach what I teach, read what I read, and discuss what I discuss so that when my students are asked to draw a Native America, they draw Maria Tallchief or Buffy Sainte-Marie. When they are asked to draw a Hispanic, they draw Frida Khalo, Sonia Sotomayor or Roberto Clemente. When they are asked to draw an African American, they draw George Washington Carver, Madame C.J. Walker or George Crum. They could tell you the importance of the Navajo Code Talkers, Martin Luther King Jr., Kwanzaa, Women's History Month, etc. They could have a discussion with you about segregation, slavery, discrimination, and why it's important to be respectful of those who are different from us.
You are obligated, as an educator, to educate your students. Books are the best way to inform not only yourself, but your students as well. Do the research. Allow the questions. Facilitate the discussions.
I don't know about you, but I don't want my students leaving my classroom ignorant of the people and the world around them.
So tell me, what would your students draw? What would your students say? And what are you going to do about it?
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