Support and Counter

The title of this blog comes from Start Seeing Diversity: Physical Ability and Physical Characteristics (Wolpert, Laroche,Rasmussen, Committee for Boston Public Housing, & Redleaf Press, 1999 a). This is my role as an educator for young children as well as a colleague to peers. And as was the case on the video, I did not have an appropriate response.

The incident took place in the Primary class where children are between 3 and 6  years of age. I was in the room to borrow a table for a keyboard after-school class. A student asked the Primary teacher why she was so fat and I was not.

This is a topic I am senstive about  and have not come to terms with. My immediate response was, 'What look at my big bottom.' and I was thinking 'How rude. Did your parents teach you no manners what so ever!'.

However the Primary teacher said, 'There are many different kinds of people. Some have black hair like you. Some have red hair like me. Some are thin. Some are medium and some are fat. Everyone is interesting.'

Good answer! She remained calm and matter of fact (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010). Gave the child something to identify with - hair (Wolpert, Laroche,Rasmussen, Committee for Boston Public Housing, & Redleaf Press, 1999b).

As I look around our school the issue of body shape is not addressed. I live in an Asian country where tall and big people are an oddity. To many Chinese even a small or medium foreigner can seem 'fat' or their euphenism 'strong'. However as the country is becoming more affluent, especially here in the capital city, there are larger people about. Especially among children.

As teachers we have looked at this as a health issue as well as the cultural practice of feeding children even after they are full. What we are missing is finding a place for all children in our classrooms.

This incident was not followed up on. But had we, positive pictures of all sorts of pictures doing activities with which the child can identify  (Wolpert, Laroche,Rasmussen, Committee for Boston Public Housing, & Redleaf Press, 1999b). The comparisons and differences can be noted to find that all sorts of people of different sizes are part of the human family. Also, our library does not at this point have any books that deal with physical characteristics that could result in prejudicial thinking. An issue we are beginning to address. I think we can introduce the idea in staff meetings, then the teacher can see that each of her children is represented in her classroom.

This may be a good place to speak about the personna dolls ( Whitney, 2008). The teacher could have used a doll to represent a victim of prejudice due to her weight and engage the children in investigating feelings and issues of fairness. However, we are a Montessori school and this particular teacher has a problem with giving animate attributes to inanimate objects. The principal and I have discussed perhaps introducing this idea to the school as a person-removed way of sorting through issues (Laureate Education, Inc., nd a). We have put it aside temporarily knowing this teacher's feelings about it. As we continue to read and investigate the pros and cons of these dolls, this may be a good way to address the situation.

Just countering with words, I think is not enough. As Eric Hoffman points out, children need concrete information to disassemble conceptions and build new ones (Laureate Education, Inc. nd. b). Pictures, visits to the classroom and field trips introducing realities of life are a good start. Helping the child to see similarities among people whom he/she sees as different help build new and positive concepts.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children

            and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Laureate Education, Inc (Walden University). (n.d.a). EDUC 6357. Antibias in ECE Settings - Nancy Spangler In Learning from Another’s Life Story . Baltimore, MD.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Walden University). (n.d.b). EDUC 6357. Antibias in ECE Settings - Eric Hoffman In Learning from Another’s Life Story . Baltimore, MD.

Whitney, T. (2008). Using Personna Dolls. In A. Pelo (Ed), Rethinking  Early Childhood Education (pp. 23-28). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Rethinking Schools, Ltd. 

Wolpert, E., Laroche, R., Rasmussen, N., Committee for Boston Public Housing, & Redleaf Press (Producer). (1999a). Start seeing diversity: Physical Ability and Physical Characteristics. St. Paul. MN: Redleaf Press.

Wolpert, E., Laroche, R., Rasmussen, N., Committee for Boston Public Housing, & Redleaf Press (Producer). (1999b). Start seeing diversity: Race and Ethnicity. St. Paul. MN: Redleaf Press.