We know children need to feel safe and secure in all their many identities, feel pride in their families, and feel at home in their early childhood programs.
Anti bias education and social justice in education are similar because they embrace the difference of individuals while trying to make these differences fair for those individuals when it comes to providing each child what they need to reach their full academic potential.
Books that accurately and positively depict children from low-income or rural families are few in number. While there are increasing numbers of authentic and respectful books about children of color, they do not yet cover all of America’s many ethnic groups and cultures.
This reminds me of one of the things that teaching tolerance teachers do: make content relevant to the demographic in their class. Although this is important, it is also important to not to do this all the time when planning a unit. When appropriate and possible, this can help students to see themselves in what they are learning to make it more meaningful.
teachers intervene with immediate and follow-up activities to counter the cumulative, hurtful effects of these messages.
I love this idea of anti bias education: to respect differences among individuals. However I can only imagine how hard it will be to do as a teacher; to intervene after every negative encounter or comment that sends a negative message to a child.