Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, & Childhood
Education
“You can’t be a Fire Man, you’re a girl!”
“You can’t be the cook, girls cook, not boys!”
“This is our play house, no black kids allowed!”
“We are building our own city and you can’t live in it
because your white!”
Although children are very smart and have a level of basic
literal understanding, sometimes they speak this way. According to
Derman-Sparks, & Olsen Edwards, 2010, “children learn about their own and
other’s social identities through overt messages which are, indirect, hidden,
and subtle, or covert messages that have a very strong impact on children
because the messages are not discussed, analyzed, or evaluated, so children can
get confused messages and understanding.” Children may be taught that they should
“learn about our differences and celebrate our similarities, but verbal
put-downs, and children who are isolated or ridiculed if they are different is
what children tend to do; Additionally, make-believe stories were defined by
race; for example, one child said to another, ‘“You can’t be the queen; there
are no black queens”’ (Pelo, 2008, p.18 par 1, 3).
Our world is continuously changing, and we’re all faced with
several diverse issues and people with unique practices and beliefs, but it
doesn’t make them less worthy of acceptance and respect.
If one of my colleagues were homosexual, or transgender I
would be supportive of them as an educator. Although there are families with
strong feelings of opposition for this idea, I would attempt to help them understand
that this person is well qualified to teach and that their personal preferences
is very personal and should not be a deciding factor that dictates their cognitive
abilities as an educator. After all, non-acceptance is a form of discrimination
just as many other bias and stereo typing practices of others.
Just as I mentioned earlier, our world is changing as many
are opting out of living in the traditional way, that we must teach children to
recognize that just because a person prefers to live their personal life within
their unique choices doesn’t mean they are less worthy of care. In fact,
schools and learning centers are educating children, having open discussions,
and are displayed through books, toys, and movies. With those facts in mind,
lets focus on teaching children and preparing them for their adult life.
References
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
Ourselves. Washington, DC: National
Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC).
Pelo, A. (Ed.). (2008). Rethinking early childhood
education. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking
Schools.
