Indigenous Rising

I thought about what I just previously wrote and I had to retract something.

I have been a preschool teacher, and I have worked in an elementary school and after school programs, and what all these places (and age groups) had in common was that they didn’t discuss oppression, not racial oppression, gender oppression, sexuality oppression, etc. So many teachers are so afraid to point the finger at the oppressors because they don’t want to hurt the feelings of the students who see themselves in these groups. But by ignoring these issues they are ignoring children who face acts of oppression. This needs to stop. 

I just watch a dvd with my seven year old child, a Dr. Suess inspired animation called The Sneetches. The movie depicted acts of prejudice between two groups of creatures called Sneetches. There are two groups, a group with stars on their bellies, and the other group has no star. The film illustrates that the star-belled sneetches were discriminatory against the other sneetches. My seven year was able to not only describe what she was seeing but was also able to apply it in a real life situation, and tell me why their behaviors are not okay. Many educators are afraid to touch on issues such as prejudice, discrimination, and oppression and hide behind the they-are-too-young-to-understand-anyways excuse, but these are issues we have to discuss because some children are being oppressed, discriminated against, and face acts of prejudice, and other children benefit from these acts. If educators are too afraid to talk about real acts of oppression then at least discuss it in an abstract way- like watching and talking about this movie.  And if children can describe why the action of the sneetches is not okay they may carry this understanding in other aspects of their lives.