PARENTING TOWARD ANTIRACISM
MONTESSORI FAMILY LIFE WEBINAR
by Lorna McGrath (Host)
Dr. Valaida Wise was recently a guest on the
Montessori Family Life Webinar series when
she shared some of her ideas about how to raise
children to be anti-racist. I will summarize a small
part of that webinar here. If you would like to
view the entire broadcast or any of our hundreds
of weekly broadcasts, you can join the Montessori
Family Alliance at montessori.org/mfa.
So many parents and teachers believe in this
myth of racial innocence. They don't want to
burden their children with this rather adult
idea of racism. They believe that children
are born kind and innocent to race and that
they don't need this information. So they
would rather raise them to be what we call
‘color blind.’ Many researchers would submit
that, actually, the worst conversation to have
with a child is no conversation at all about
race. What is known is that, in reality, young
children (as early as three months old) understand
bias and difference based on research by
Dr. Karen Wynn, Director of the Infant Cognition
Center, and Dr. Bloomington, both at
Yale University.
What researchers are thinking now is that
humans may be born with this kind of bias.
We have a bias towards something that looks
scary or different. Research shows that these
biases are not just ‘learned’ behaviors. They
are actually inbred, instinctual behaviors that
worked for our protection at one point. Left
unchecked, without a parent’s guidance, the
child cannot help but develop a bias.
Children see bias as early as 3-6 months old.
So let's scan forward. What happens in a
family if the parent says, "Well, I don't want
to talk about race because my child is too
young?” or “I want them to remain innocent
from all of this.” Then the child will be raised
in a color-blind mindset and, as research bears
out, the child is less likely to point out or understand
when discrimination happens.
This could happen very subtly. Let's say you're
at a playground with your child. You see another
child point to a child of color and you
hear the pointing child say, "That child looks
dirty. Why is that child dirty? Does it come
off?" The parent of the pointing child cringes,
turns, and walks away, shushing the child. The
child's interpretation is that this is not a good
topic; they should not talk about this.
To conclude this summary of just a small segment
of Dr. Wise’s broadcast, let’s remember
that when we allow our biases (or our embarrassment)
in situations stop us from guiding
our children toward antiracism (especially the
youngest children), they absorb it right away.
Children are mirrors. They mirror us. It's so
very important that we check ourselves to see
what our children are sensing in our attitudes,
in our language, and in our thinking because
they are taking it all in.
“Children become
like the things they love.”
–DR. MARIA MONTESSORI
Valaida L. Wise,
Ed.D, is an educational
consultant and adjunct
professor at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Dr.
Wise is an expert in child development
and a trained Montessori teacher. She is
passionate about sharing her expertise
about social justice and equity in
Montessori schools.
TOMORROW'S CHILD © JANUARY 2021 WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG 19
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