The Ideal Anti-Bias Classroom
I will never forget the day I visited my son's preschool classroom. His preschool classroom did not reflect an Anti-bias toward genders, cultures or disabilities. They were many non-majority items in his classroom: an African American doll, a picture of a handicapped child and books depicting different cultures. However, there were no pictures of children and their families. "Children are aware of differences in color, language, gender and physical ability at a very young age." I believe that "it is not healthy for child's development to have biases and negative stereotypes about aspects of human diversity in their classroom. Anti-bias curriculum seeks to nurture the development of every child's fullest potential by actively addressing issues of diversity and equity in the classroom."
"An environment that is rich in possibilities for exploring gender, ethnicity, and different-blendes sets the scene for practicing anti-bias curriculum. To make this possible and create an ideal Anti-bias multicultural classroom we must increase materials that reflect children and adults who are of color, differently-able, and engaged in non-stereotypic gender activities. Also, to eliminate all stereotypic and inaccurate materials. Ensure that images of all the children are in abundance, images of children and adults from the major ethnic groups are displayed, people of color are not represented as 'tokens,' a fair balance of images of women and men show both doing 'jobs in the home" that are stereotypically done only by one or the other, images of elderly people of various backgrounds are doing different activities, images of differently-able people of various backgrounds show them doing work and participating with their families in recreational activities, images of diversity in family styles depict: single mothers or fathers, extended families, families with a grandparent as the primary caregiver, interracial & multiethnic families, &...