I can remember a time that I was with my nephew at the mall
and we were shopping around. He turned
to me and asked me why that person was so short but looked older. I felt so uncomfortable. As most children, his voice was not quiet and
I am pretty sure that the women heard him say that. I just answered by saying oh don’t worry
about it hunny and quickly changed the subject to something else.
This message could have been portrayed to my nephew that
either I did not know or it was something he doesn’t need to know about. He probably assumed it was something that
shouldn’t be discussed and probably viewed that person as being very different
and maybe a bit weird. He likely still
wondered as we continued shopping, why that person looked that way and why his
aunt didn’t want to talk about it.
An anti-biased educator could have responded to him by
saying that person was born differently than people he is use to seeing. They could have taught a mini lesson on
dwarfism and what it means to be a dwarf.
They could have explained this person is just like us but smaller in
size. They could have talked about it
being considered a disability but for most with this, make huge accomplishments
and live their life just like we do but with some adjustments.
That was a teachable moment in which at the time could have been a measuring activity using string to measure yourself and your nephew to show that not everybody is not the same size. I remember one time my grandson saw the neighbor down the street with long hair after seeing him the day before. He asked the neighbor was he a boy or a girl. My neighbor said a man. So my grandson said he was a boy. My neighbor said well when you grow up your be a man. My grandson asked him why he was wearing lady hair. My neighbor explained that sometimes he like long hair and like wearing the same colors ladies wear. As he got older he understands more and more as well as still being curios to continue asking my neighbors questions. All Teachable moments people are unique and so they are different and have different needs.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good example of a moment where you just have no idea what to say! Before this program that would have been me also! I am learning that if you ignore the problem of the statement you create an even bigger problem. So being an anti biased teacher we would have been able to address that problem by showing examples role playing and just discussing it in general!
ReplyDeleteNice job
Rachael
Lynette,
ReplyDeleteI think that we all have experiences such as the one you mentioned this week. I wish that I could go back and change things that I have said to my own children and even the students in my classroom. I'm finding that this course is making me more and more aware of things more immediately that I would have in the past. I'm not saying that I give a good or correct response right away yet, but I hope that the impacts of our work together as a group allows me to get to that point!
Amanda