When some adults make statements related to sensitive issues, perhaps they do not realize the impact their statements will have on younger children and their relationships with their peers. Since recent presidential elections I have noticed racial tensions spilled into elementary classrooms also. I do not have statistics but I am sure elementary school teachers and administrators might be experiencing what I have experienced as an educator and administrator in K-8 school in recent months.
I wonder whether those instigated the tensions with their statements and remarks ever realized the damage they have done to the young minds. Since presidential elections teachers reported that students were making racial remarks to each other. This year discipline issues related to racial prejudice have increased when compared to the previous years. Prior to elections, the relationship among students of different races was fairly good. Students were embracing racial differences and were open-minded to each other’s cultures. The credit goes to educators, parents, and civil rights leaders who made a tremendous effort to educate everyone that racism doesn’t have a place in civil society and it should be eradicated.
Racism is a very challenging issue that continues to haunt communities all over the world. Adults are trying hard for centuries to understand and find solutions to overcome the challenge. Until recently many people thought that we are making progress in this battle. Unfortunately with recent incidents all over the world, especially in United States, people are beginning to feel that we have entered into another “difficult phase” of the battle against “racial discrimination”.
Everybody knows that parents are the primary educators of a child. Children are great at imitating. What they hear and see impacts them so much. Children are excellent at transferring their learning, especially anything that captures their attention. With recent ‘racial tensions’ in our communities, we entered into a new era which poses a new challenge to the school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and community leaders. As much as ‘racial tension’ is an old problem, it has taken a new form with additional challenges, like a known virus mutating into a more dangerous one.
Thinking from educators’ perspective, I wonder when adults feel that racism is such a complex issue, how an average elementary student, who could hardly spell the word, will understand what it means and her/his remarks to another student could hurt others. How should schools address this issue in their schools? I believe schools could take the lead to address the issue in following ways. They are, (a) add new curricular component related to “racial tolerance”, (b) integrate racial tolerance component as part of classroom curriculum, (c) start conversations in faculty meetings, (d) offer professional development to teachers, and (e) begin conversations in PTA meetings. I am sure there are many other strategies that school could use to fight the “racial virus”. What path schools take to address this issue is not important, but whether they address the issue in an effective way with an urgent need or not is very important.
Unless everyone acts responsibly with an urgency to address the “new wave of racial tensions” in our communities, it is not long before we become the proprietors of destroying the bright future of our own children. The choice is ours – A choice to create an amicable society in which people of all races live peacefully appreciating the richness of each other’s culture or a chaotic society in which everyone constantly tries to destroy each other! Do we want to create monsters that could destroy each other in the name of race or create Scientists, Engineers, Astronauts, Doctors, Engineers, Teachers, Lawyers, and many others who world make this world a beautiful place?
I wonder whether those instigated the tensions with their statements and remarks ever realized the damage they have done to the young minds. Since presidential elections teachers reported that students were making racial remarks to each other. This year discipline issues related to racial prejudice have increased when compared to the previous years. Prior to elections, the relationship among students of different races was fairly good. Students were embracing racial differences and were open-minded to each other’s cultures. The credit goes to educators, parents, and civil rights leaders who made a tremendous effort to educate everyone that racism doesn’t have a place in civil society and it should be eradicated.
Racism is a very challenging issue that continues to haunt communities all over the world. Adults are trying hard for centuries to understand and find solutions to overcome the challenge. Until recently many people thought that we are making progress in this battle. Unfortunately with recent incidents all over the world, especially in United States, people are beginning to feel that we have entered into another “difficult phase” of the battle against “racial discrimination”.
Everybody knows that parents are the primary educators of a child. Children are great at imitating. What they hear and see impacts them so much. Children are excellent at transferring their learning, especially anything that captures their attention. With recent ‘racial tensions’ in our communities, we entered into a new era which poses a new challenge to the school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and community leaders. As much as ‘racial tension’ is an old problem, it has taken a new form with additional challenges, like a known virus mutating into a more dangerous one.
Thinking from educators’ perspective, I wonder when adults feel that racism is such a complex issue, how an average elementary student, who could hardly spell the word, will understand what it means and her/his remarks to another student could hurt others. How should schools address this issue in their schools? I believe schools could take the lead to address the issue in following ways. They are, (a) add new curricular component related to “racial tolerance”, (b) integrate racial tolerance component as part of classroom curriculum, (c) start conversations in faculty meetings, (d) offer professional development to teachers, and (e) begin conversations in PTA meetings. I am sure there are many other strategies that school could use to fight the “racial virus”. What path schools take to address this issue is not important, but whether they address the issue in an effective way with an urgent need or not is very important.
Unless everyone acts responsibly with an urgency to address the “new wave of racial tensions” in our communities, it is not long before we become the proprietors of destroying the bright future of our own children. The choice is ours – A choice to create an amicable society in which people of all races live peacefully appreciating the richness of each other’s culture or a chaotic society in which everyone constantly tries to destroy each other! Do we want to create monsters that could destroy each other in the name of race or create Scientists, Engineers, Astronauts, Doctors, Engineers, Teachers, Lawyers, and many others who world make this world a beautiful place?