Guide to Teaching Children Social Consciousness

During my six years of teaching I worked hard on developing socially conscious, anti-bias curriculum. It is with great pride, that I am currently producing socially conscious childrens' media. Teaching social consciousness to children is something that I not only have many years of experience developing, but also am extremely committed to.

It is important to provide books, stories and movies that work against stereotypes. We need to be aware of what images your children are exposed to. Look carefully for stereotypes, because often they are subtle or covert.

Ask these questions when selecting media for you child:

1. How many cultures and/or races are represented in the story? Are the images positive?

2. Is there a variety of cultures/races in everyday life that your child can relate to or learn from?

3. How are women and girls represented? Are they strong, capable, competent, smart? What kinds of choices are the women making? How are men and boys
represented? Are they violent or aggressive? What is the balance between positive women in the story and positive male images? Is it equal?

4. How are the disabled represented in your children's media?

Addressing Disability with Children:
Many parents and educators have no idea how to address questions and curiosity about the disabled. Part of this problem is that most adults and professionals are extremely uninformed about the disabled. People typically reduced disabled people to folks in wheelchairs or blind with a white cane. The reality is that there are numerous disabilities, many of which are not visible. I also had the opportunity to experience how uncomfortable people are with disability when I broke my foot. One would think that this is a normal occurrence. However, I had people stare at me like I was from another planet. I can only imagine what people with permanent disabilities endure, not to mention, folks who are disfigured or have unusual anatomies.
To help children understand and embrace people with disabilities, the worst thing we can do is to dismiss and shush them when they ask questions, trying not to be rude to the disabled person. Even worse still is to talk to the child as if the disabled person if not there, is unaware or unable to hear. Furthermore, it does not help to pretend that the disability does not exist. During these encounters, the best thing to do is address the child's question, including the disabled person. Let your child address the person directly. Outside of in person encounters, it is important to reinforce images of disabled folks doing everyday activities, especially that demonstrate competency that children can identify with.

Teaching Compassion:
We can teach compassion through action and exposure. You can volunteer or visit local animal shelters with your children. You can also volunteer for an age appropriate charity like a soup kitchen or nursing home. The most simple act of compassion is simply encouraging children to give away toys and clothes when they want new ones.

Play:
I do not recommend buying war toys, but I also do not like to discourage pretend war play. We need to remember that children are working on forming concepts and to shape those concepts excessively is detrimental to their process. Early in my teaching, I believed that discouraging war play was the best policy. However, children's play is dictated by what they are processing. There is a stage of play development where children imitate their world; from imitation emerges fantasy play where they work on and developed their own concepts. When a child chooses war or gun play we do not know what concept they are working on. In other words if a imaginary gun enters a child's play it does not necessarily represent what we associate with a literal gun. It can represent power, competition, something the child is processing or even simply camaraderie with the other kids. For this same reason, I believe in non-violent toys. War toys perpetuate the literal use of a pretend gun and advocating of violence. Play needs to be open ended and come from what the child needs to process rather then dictate how they play. Non-violent Educational toys that are open ended and passive nurture open-ended concepts that a child could be working on. From my experience, I recommend providing non-violent, Educational Toys that encourage cooperation.

Home Environment:
Evaluate your own family and environment: What kinds of images do you have in your home? If you have art, how much of it is women artists and artists of varying races and cultures? Do the books in your home library represent a diversity of authors? What about the magazines in your home? What are the women doing? What roles are they in? What is their body language and how are they dresses?

Media Images and Stereotypes:
An essential practice in teaching social consciousness to children is talking openly about existing stereotypes. Inevitably, despite your best efforts, toys and movies will enter your home that you did not choose. If your child's well intended Aunt or Grandma purchases Peter Pan, showing epitomized stereotypes of native Americans the best you can do is use it to instigate a discussion, asking open ended questions. It is essential to counterbalance these images with realistic and positive images and media.

If your daughter is crazy about a minimally dressed female singer, who you see as a negative representation of women, talk to her about what she likes about this singer. Use her answers to ask more questions. Based on her answer, balance her exposure to other female artist that promote a responsible, empowered and positive image of women. For example if the appeal is music and seeing a woman perform expose her to artists like Pink. Talk openly about how these artist compare and contrast and be sure to ask open ended questions. The same actions are necessary if your son takes a liking to the same artist. The difference is that for a girl it is gender identity and for boys it is forming images of how they understand and interpret the opposite sex. If your son admires a male artist that perpetuates negative stereotypes and disrespect of women, in addition to open ended discussion and questions, you can counterbalance this with both positive male role models and positive female images. For both genders of children it is important to have open discussion; at the same time I believe it is especially critical for boys, because they are exposed to many societal messages that tell them not to process their thoughts and feelings. At the same time, girls need images that they can identify with that are empowering and that set positive examples.

Overall, raising your children with social consciousness is complex, though not impossible. It requires serious commitment and evaluation that in time becomes second nature.

At this stage in my career I am producing children's media and I am exciting with the outcome and my works still in progress. Please contact me for more information.

*** A note about my reference material- I was educated in Early Childhood Education at Cabrillo College and in Human Development at Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena CA. Due to dyslexia, I did not read a single book entirely and I do not remember any titles. The majority of my information is based on my own experience and processing my education.