This week's topic and materials has been a real eye-opener for me. I have been amazed at the amount of microaggressions that are in my environment! I wanted to find out if the children in my environment were experiencing as much microaggression as the adults seemed to be so I observed the school-age summer camp program at my center.
Sadly, it seems our children are experiencing microaggression and I don't think the children that are being offensive realize what they are saying. I watched a friendly dodge ball game between 6 children in the summer camp at my center. The group consisted of 4 girls and 2 boys with 2 girls and 1 boy being on each team. Every time that one little girl in group 1 would hit someone with the ball and score, the boy on her team would say, "Alright, not too bad for a girl!" He said this EVERY time. At first the little girl did not say anything, but she would roll her eyes, frown, shake her head, etc. After about the sixth time of him yelling this she turned and said, "At least God made me a girl, not just a boy who wears purple!" I almost fell down I was so shocked at her comment. I was saddened by the insults from both children. The teacher repeatedly said things like, "OK, that is not nice", "if you can't say something nice...", etc. but never really addressed the behavior and microaggressions from either child. At the end of the day I talked with the teacher and we decided that we really need to design some lessons and activities to help these children understand that their remarks and behavior are not acceptable and hurtful.
I have always known that adults can be bias and hurtful but I did not realize how much of this behavior is being absorbed and learned by children. I have always tried to make my center a safe place and a place where all people are accepted. I was shocked and outraged by this behavior and the lack of skills that my summer camp leader had to deal with the situation. I realize that even thought we do a lot of training for our staff that it must not be effective and I need to re-think how to help all our staff recognize bias behavior and effectively handle situations like the one I observed.
Thanks for reading!
Monette
Hi Monette,
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea that you and your colleague decided to develop activities to help children understand microaggressions. I love this idea so much that it is something I will talk to my boss about and develop some activities in my center as well. Thanks for such a great idea!
Wow Monette,
ReplyDeleteI loved your posting and I agree that microaggressions should be addressed on all levels. The earlier we address this issue, the better our society will become. I am a firm believer in taking advantage of "teachable moments" and believe that children learn more when they immediately understand how their actions affect others.
Thank you,
Berdetta
Hi Monette,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was very informative and addressed an important issue with educators. Your desire to create lessons or activities to address this issue is great. Hopefully the children will take what they learned in the classrooms and demonstrate it at home. Unfortunately I have seen too many parents who support and encourage that type of behavior to their children who in turn display it at school. But we must plant the good seed somewhere and hope that it will grow.