Open Thread

8 Responses to Open Thread

1. K says:

   January 27, 2012 at 2:17 pm

   I’m always looking for books/movies to read to my kids that are a) without racism, sexism, ableism, or othering of any kind, and b) good, interesting, non-preachy stories. Any suggestions? Mine are 1 and 7, but suggestions for any age are welcome!

   I thought I had found a good one with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, but there’s some fat-judging in there, as well as sexism and complete (white) racial homogeneity.
2. Julia says:

   January 27, 2012 at 4:15 pm

   I used to teach 5th grade (so maybe a bit old for your kids), but my favorites were Welcome Home, Jellybean and Nobody’s Family Is Ever Going To Change (by author of Harriet the Spy). There was also a really nice one about a child in a Japanese internment camp, but I can’t think of the title just now…

   I salute you in your search. I’m always on the same search for a 4-year-old in all forms of media and it’s challenging.
3. K says:

   January 27, 2012 at 4:22 pm

   Julia, thanks for the ideas. I will check them out. Has your little one seen The Koala Brothers? It is a BBC cartoon I think but you can get it on DVD. They are very positive and helpful and while there is a dearth of female characters (there are two or three in a cast of seven or eight) and no characters marked non-white, I do recommend it. As all the characters are animals I guess it’s just as well that they are all assumed to be of European heritage.
4. Momsomniac says:

   January 27, 2012 at 4:37 pm

   K – We really like Highlights Magazine “High Five” magazine for younger kids. For us, it’s a monthly breath of (fun) fresh air…
5. Julia says:

   January 27, 2012 at 4:50 pm

   Thanks, K. Have not seen Koala Brothers but will check it out!
6. turtlebella says:

   January 28, 2012 at 10:08 am

   Here’s the background-
   We are starting the school search for T, our (Latina but very light-skinned) daughter. Here in St Paul we have open enrollment, meaning that there are a number of magnet schools that are open to any children in the city (and beyond) as well as the neighborhood school. And then there are charters (which I’m not even going to get into here). Although our daughter is actually two years away from kindergarten, two of the four possible schools we are looking at have pre-K, for which we would have to apply next year (for one of the schools, which is very popular and therefore hard to get in to, being in the pre-K ensures enrollment at kindergarten). So we need to make some choices…which means visiting open houses in the next month or so.

   Most of the schools have a fairly diverse student population- our neighborhood school is 47% African-American/Black, 17% Latin@, 17% white, 2% Native American, and 3% Asian-American, for example. Some of the schools have a higher percentage of Latin@s than African-Americans (eg the Spanish Immersion), and one is 65% white (which is the most predominately white school of them all- the French Immersion), and the Montessori has 44% Asian-American, 36% white, 13% Black and 8% Latin@… In any case, even the whitest school still has a fair amount of diversity in its student population. However, the teacher population- not so diverse. For example, in our neighborhood school, which is almost half Black students, there are three Black teachers. Which frankly, is a problem which needs to be addressed district-wide but which probably won’t be addressed before T starts (or even finishes?) school. So on to our concerns–

   1. Given the diversity of the student body, I’d like to know if the teachers have received any kind of anti-racist, cross-cultural competency training. How do I ask this? What are the right terms? My husband, a former high school teacher, received what was called “cross-cultural communication” training which was specifically about white teachers (my husband is white) teaching Black students, but that seems a mouthful and also kind of euphemistic… What would you ask?

   2. Given that my daughter is light-skinned Latina and her family is fairly comfortable, economically, we worry sometimes about her “fitting in” – we’d love for her to be attend the neighborhood school. But she would definitely be “different” – 97% of the student body receives free or reduced lunch (another stat I’ve heard is that 4 out of 5 students there live in poverty, which is sort of true of our neighborhood in general, although there are more middle class families than that- it’s just that those families *tend* to send their kids to one of the city-wide magnets, which of course pisses me off! And remember: this school is very good, routinely performs very well on the standardized tests etc for what it’s worth so it’s not like it’s a “bad” school, despite the poverty & racial make-up of the school, which are *usually* code for “bad” schools, at least in the perspective of dominant white lens). We worry about her being ostracized due to her social and racial characteristics. Of course, this is the flip-side of how some students are the only Black/Latin@/Asian-American in their school of mostly white kids…. and she’s got privilege to protect her, but sometimes that’s not enough and even in privilege you can be hurt because you are seen as different… My thoughts are all over on this one! Sorry! I’m inclined to sort of see how it goes with this… But any ideas people have are welcome (including telling us to stop being obnoxious!).

   phew, long-winded! i’m impressed if you read all that…
7. Alex says:

   January 29, 2012 at 9:45 pm

   This article is what bothers me as a parent. The title of the article is so ironic, given that the article does the offensive thing of labeling pedophilia as an issue of homosexuality. By using the term “homosexuality” the writer of the article implies that children have the same legal power as an adult, including the ability to give consent to sex with an adult. Everyone should be pissed about this, and not just people who are homosexual.

   http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/29/justice/sandusky-witness-words/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

   As a parent, this left me feeling so angry. Call it what it is. Child sexual abuse. Pedophilia. Not homosexuality. Not homosexual sex, but the alleged rape of an adult against a child.
8. Kathy says:

   January 29, 2012 at 11:23 pm

   @turtlebella, you can contact me to talk more about St. Paul schools. I am a parent of an 8th grader and I have some contacts at the district to help you figure out the best way to get the info you need. I also have some experience with a few specific elementary schools in the area, depending on where in St. Paul you live. I would be happy to talk with you more. My email is faversham@earthlink.net
   All the best,
   Kathy