The Blog Part!

There is no greater gift or power than to see someone, truly, and to be seen. It begins with what we teach our children to think about who they are, and who surrounds them.

 Though sometimes it is easier not to talk about, to not talk about race & culture as a part of social/emotional development is to ignore a large part of who they are, and who we are as a collective.

~

It's in the conversation. The exchange. The joy of it, the sticky, uncomfortable parts of it. We create curriculum for our kids first, which, we've found, inspires and engages the parents; the kiddos have conversations with their parents about the material, the teachers and parents talk which deepens the exchange, the teachers talk with other teachers who maybe wouldn't have ever landed on the topic of race, culture & its effects on modern society if the curriculum hadn't given voice to it. And we, creating the curriculum, are kept in touch with culture, or learn of new languages, and customs! Of how we are different and the same all at once. We expand, too. Those are the relationships we seek. To involve small minds and small hearts, the future of our world, in celebration and exploration of who they are! And where we come from! And letting that ripple out into our community. Yes, it's about the kids. And, it is about all of us. How do we build compassion from the ground up? We celebrate, we educate, and we keep learning alongside our communities. We create space to say, We see you! The stage is yours! And to say, history was wrong to exclude or alter certain narratives. We do not wait for racial and cultural issues and divides and dehumanizing beliefs to surface later on and address them then; we start now. In childhood. And we start with joy, and patience.

Though it can be joyful work, it is no small thing. No simple soundbite. It takes an incredible amount of work to put these cultural weeks together, and it comes from a deep place. Prioritizing multi-culturalism across our year, and not simply during curriculum weeks that specify culture, is vital and a practice of ours as well. We consistently create space for our children to see themselves, in all their nuances, reflected in our classroom. Why? Because, as humans, we need to see ourselves reflected in our environment. As women of Color, we have felt the effects of lack of space, lack of reflection; or, if there were reflection, of negative reflection. By creating specific cultural art projects and immersive, sensory experiences, especially with regards to our classroom's specific cultural composition, for example, we create space. By bringing in books year round that center people of Color, queer folks, women/girls, folks with disabilities, folks of differing economic class and family structure, we create space. We strive to cultivate a space where everyone feels seen, and has opportunity to see others more deeply. Kids, parents, teachers, ourselves. To put it in perspective, if you were, for example, of Color, and you read book after book of stories filled with only White characters, or a Brown character sprinkled in here or there but not of any seeming importance, you receive a strong message about how you are valued in our world. Similarly, if you were Caucasian, and you read book after book of stories filled with White folk, you are taught of your apparent and grand importance. This is not the sort of classroom we want to nurture.  We want each child to feel affirmed by way of their own image and language, and we want to offer materials and experiences for them also, to peer into peoples unlike themselves, to foster empathy, humility, and curiosity about others. This work is a medium through which to build a more colorful, aware, culturally & racially competent and compassionate world.

 And in the nature of the light-hearted: it is just a JOY to learn of different cultures & peoples across time and across the world; we witness our children wildly enjoy learning alongside us, and our parents often express their gratitude for our devotion to cultural celebration and awareness. It feels good. It feels important.

Some projects we are especially proud of:

• Las Parrandas - During "Holidays Around the World" week, we engaged with the tradition of Las Parrandas de Remedios, a tradition where, between the 16th and 26th of December, our Latin American friends play instruments and walk from house to house singing and remembering the journey of Mary and Joseph. We had a vibrant conversation about the custom, created paper plate guitars, and we paraded around the school, going from classroom to classroom to sing our songs! 

• Japanese New Year - In our new year celebrations, we incorporated Japanese traditions! We learned about Kagami Mochi, collectively cleaned our classroom to mirror the Japanese custom of cleaning one's house for the New Year, and created a Soba Noodle Sensory Bin to explore the textures of soba, scallions, tofu and mushrooms with our very own chopsticks and bowls! 

• Black History Month - In lieu of a Black History Month curriculum week, we created an entire month of experiences interwoven among other curriculum weeks! Two of our favorites projects would have to be the experience of laying on the floor in the dark and listening to some of Nikki Giovanni's children poems, then water coloring a poem of hers and decorating the border with African-patterned fabrics. Another project used that same fabric, and the children created a headscarf by gluing it onto a printed figure of a Black woman's headscarf, drawn by a local Black artist. 

• Chinese New Year - We turned this week into LUNAR New Year week, as many Asian cultures celebrate Lunar New Year, not just Chinese folks as indicated by our curriculum themes. We centered three different cultures; Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese; to reflect and celebrate those a part of our class who observed! We had a Lunar New Year Show + Tell to give them their spotlight. Two friends dressed in traditional Lunar New Year attire, a teacher brought in tea ware to share her process of drinking tea on New Year's. Throughout the week, parents cooked traditional foods for the staff, teachers brought in Chinese snacks for the kids to try, and we even had a real-life Lion head! Children created dragon masks and paraded with the Lion Dancer (me) to all the classrooms around the school, dancing to Chinese drum music, and handing out lucky red envelopes!