I N T ERR UP TING MICR OAGGRES S I O NS
Continued from page 13
Children notice differences instinctually,
the way that they notice they are hun-
gry or tired. It is a gift to those of us who
teach young children that their noticing of
these differences are often not yet bound
by the constraints of a society who seeks
to ignore conversations about inequity
and justice. As teachers of young children,
when our students notice differences, it
presents us with an opportunity to name
the impact of those differences on our abil-
ity to navigate our world. A kindergartener
who names that the skin of a brown child
is “dirty” is also ready to have a conversa-
tion about the impact of lack of representa-
tion of brown-skinned characters in books,
or brown-skinned princesses in animated
films and how that might lead us to believe
that brown skin is not beautiful. A four-year-
old who comments that boys don’t wear
dresses is a child who is ready to be part of
a conversation about gender stereotypes
and the idea that gender is not something
you can assess by looking at a person, but
rather something they communicate about
their own identity. These are the conversa-
tions, lessons, and experiences that build
the capacity for children to speak across dif-
ference, in accountability to each other, and
with the hope of building a more just and
equitable world. l
References
Katz, P. A., & Kofkin, J. A. (1997). Race, gen-
der, and young children. In S. S. Luthar &
J. A. Burack (Eds.), Developmental psycho-
pathology: Perspectives on adjustment,
risk, and disorder (pp. 51–74). New York,
NY: Cambridge University Press.
Sue, D. W., Lin, A. I., Torino, G. C., Capodi-
lupo, C. M., & Rivera, D. P. (2009). Racial mi-
croaggressions and difficult dialogues on
race in the classroom. Cultural Diversity and
Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15(2), 183–190.
Winkler, E. N. (2009). Children are not col-
orblind: How young children learn race.
PACE: Practical Approaches for Continuing
Education, 3(3), 1-8.
Elena Jaime has taught and led in early childhood and early elementary settings for the past 18
years. She is Associate Director at The Brick Church School, a preschool in New York City. Prior to
Brick, she was a lower school principal, worked as a classroom teacher and leader in a variety of New
York independent schools, and was a founding teacher at a progressive charter school in the Bronx.
Elena has presented at a number of local and national conferences, and has partnered with teach-
ers across NYC as they work to examine the ways in which they can fully integrate equity work into
early childhood curriculums. Elena is also a trainer for CRJE (formerly Border Crossers), an organiza-
tion that trains and equips educators to be leaders of racial justice in their schools and communities,
and a co-founder of the CARLE Institute, an organization dedicated to supporting white teachers
to develop the necessary historical framework, interpersonal skills, and curriculum development
strategies they need to teach a diverse student body. Contact Elena at [email protected].
Page 14 Summer 2020
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