A difficult task schools have faced is deciding whether children should be exposed and educated on racism. The topic of racism has a history that many may view as complicated, overwhelming, or simply not appropriate for a child to learn about. Society tends to underestimate what the brain of a child is capable of understanding and achieving. This has lead adults whom form our school systems to shield children from being schooled on the traumatizing events, ideas, and facts on racism which have helped form the world we live in. A person does not experience racism based on their age, therefore every child should be taught about the history of racial difference that exists in America.
Looking back on my own education, racism was not introduced until I reached my first year of high school. It was presented in our history class in the form of slavery. We would read about how Africans were caged like animals when brought over to America. Our teacher would show documentaries on African slaves getting mistreated by their white owners as they worked in plantation fields. Everything that had to do with racial difference and racial advantage was associated with happening only to African Americans. This lead me to notice how many moments of racism that occurred in America were not addressed in great detail in our history books. There was very little reason given as to how and why these events happened, as well as why they were so important in our country’s historical timeline. We were always taught to treat one another as equals, but everything I was learning about in school and seeing in my neighborhood appeared to do the opposite. All of these missing details created questions about America’s history. These questions did not want to be answered until I reached college. In college I was given the whole truth about all these historical events which were taught to me as a child. For some reason, I felt cheated when I was finally allowed to know all the information behind these horrific moments. I had lived so many years unable to justify the cruel actions I had witnessed growing up. As a child, due to the lack of knowledge on racism I accepted racist acts to occur, believing the issue of racism was a part of my past. I justified these acts as someone either being mad or simply telling a joke. In reality, I was allowing historical issues our society has faced to continue. Years later, now a college student, I am aware of racism no longer being an issue of the past. Instead, it is an issue of the present and I was a contributing factor to its existence.
Information distributed in schools has often been left incomplete in order to tailor the message to the child’s age. The sense of incompleteness begins to distort the perception the child has on the information being received. In Understanding Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, and Class Privilege, Beverly Daniel Tatum describes a moment where one of her students conducted a study which explored how preschoolers viewed and understood the idea of Native Americans. The student asked the three- and four-year old children to draw a picture of a Native American, but “most were stumped at her request.” After the student rephrased the question, replacing the word Native American with Indian, the results were surprising. Every picture concentrated on the idea of feathers. The children also depicted the people in their drawings as angry and accompanied by a weapon. “Sometimes the assumptions we make about others come not from what we have been told or what we have seen on television or in book, but rather from what we have not been told.” (Tatum 126) The gaps of detail in the information being received must be filled and is usually done so by the use of the child’s imagination. This then gives birth to stereotypes and influences the child to perceive certain ideas as the truth. The children involved in this research project were most likely never taught about Native American culture and how feathers play an important role in the Native American belief system. They were probably never told by anyone why Native Americans always appeared angry and held weapons in books they read or movies they had seen. All of this unexplained information allows for the creation of a foundation of acceptable stereotypes. These assumptions then go unchallenged by our children not because they do not understand racism, but because we have omitted them from learning the truth.
As the parent or guardian of a child, it is our instinct to want to protect our young from harm, but it is also our duty to teach them what actions are harmful in order to avoid our children from harming others or themselves. Shielding our children from the horrifying history of racism can sound like the right thing to do, however we are teaching our children to fear or even avoid things they do not completely understand. This in turn will impact the manner in which they learn, as well as treat others, as they develop. School is intended to be a safe zone for learning. It is the place where children should be allowed to explore complicated topics such as racism. Children should feel unafraid to make mistakes and ask questions because someone who understands how our society works is there to guide them and also teach them why certain actions are considered the right thing to do, while other actions are considered wrong. Allan Johnson explains in his excerpt Privilege, Oppression, and Difference, how the idea of people being afraid of what they do not know or understand is simply a misconception. “The problem is our ideas about what we don’t know… and how we think about such things isn’t something we’re born with.” (Johnson 13) The manner in which we approach a situation influences a child by effecting how they will react and perceive similar situations they encounter in the future. The adult must be conscious of their attitude when teaching about a topic like racism. Adults are the source for learning and therefore are the people which children mirror and information they repeat.
Whether we bring it up or not, children will notice race and other differences between people and themselves. Discussing the topic of race with a child will not increase the likelihood of them becoming racist. On the contrary, not wanting to discuss racial differences can create confusion and imply that anything associated with race is bad, and race should not be talked about. We should take advantage of the safe environment schools offer our children to learn in and allow each child to practice communicating their thoughts on groups of people different from their own and themselves. Racial differences that exist within our society exist in classrooms as well which allow our school systems the opportunity to teach our children to make sense of the differences they are noticing among themselves. School departments must find a way to implement a curriculum where our history classes are not just handing the child information about the past, with no correlation to the world they are living in presently. “What this means is that, while it's important for us to talk to our children about diversity and equality, the way we do it should evolve as our kids grow.” (Villarica) The research project Beverly Daniel Tatum’s student conducted was a perfect moment to teach about race. The teacher could have taught these three- and four-year old children make sense of the complicated issues of diversity, prejudice, and equality. As our children continue to develop, more light can be shed on different historical facts on racism, giving a child the opportunity to discuss racial difference and practice racial equality with their peers.
We should embrace the racial differences that exist in our country and teach our children to do the same. The history associated with race in America is disturbing, but it has helped us become a better a society. Historical events associated with racism should not be told as simply something that occurred, but also how it has help shape our country and the manner in which our society behaves. Discussing the horrifying details of racism can serve as a tool for teaching children not to commit racist acts. Our job as adults is to shield our children from committing the same mistakes and that way helping them create a better future. We are all a part of one human race – without the recognition that difference and diversity are pervasive. In other words, sameness and difference co-exist. Critically, avoiding conversations about difference and diversity does not help children develop positive coping strategies for dealing with experiences like racism and discrimination. Nor does it help protect them against the harmful effects of such experiences on their health, wellbeing, learning and development. Now more than ever, we have the responsibility to ensure all children learn to navigate the complexities of our diverse world with empathy and respect. We must do all we can to ensure children ae free from discrimination and unfair treatment on the basis of their cultural background, language and skin color.