We have to tell about a time when we witnessed an adult reprimand or silence a child after he pointed out someone they saw different. I actually witnessed an instance this week while at work; a female parent was in our registration office registering her children for school. While filling out the paperwork a plus size woman walked in the office and the little boy said wow mom look at that fat lady. The mother and the registrar both said to the young man that is not nice you shouldn’t say things like that. He just put his head down and started playing with a piece of paper.
The messages communicated to the child was that it was not nice to say, that was not the approriate time or place to say things like this, and you should not talk about people. With the look on his face it looked like he was going to get in trouble when he got home.
An anti-bias educator may have took the time out and explain to him why saying things like that can hurt someone’s feelings instead of jumping on him all at once. Also explain to him why it is not nice to say those things about someone. I believe apologizing as well will be a good way to show the child that when you make a mistake or say something that it is not nice it would be appropriate to apologize to the person’s feelings they hurt.
I agree - I think this situation definitely deserved a explanation as to why its wrong to say things like that. Allowing children to think that its just not nice and to not say it is not enough. As ECE educators we have to step up to the plate when others don't.
ReplyDeleteTanasha,
ReplyDeleteI agee with you that it is important to let a child know why what they have sad was inappropriate. I don't know how old the child was but in my opinion, he was just commenting on what he saw. Does the child even understand why it was inappropriate to call the lady "fat"? At the same time, was it wrong to call the lady "fat" if she was overweight? We always assume that we cannot say certain things when people are within earshot. In my opinion, the child learned nothing by being silenced and may even be confused why he was reprimanded. Thanks for sharing your example.