Guest Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 how to select materials which promote positive, non-discriminatory messages Any ideas anyone what info i can give - very last bit of M7 - then finished NVQ3 - taking in on Monday - quick!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 It's hard because we all do it so naturally now without a second thought. It would almost be like asking how we ensure we keep breathing! Personally I think it is just as pointless to have a whole host of images from all cultures and abilities and to have no able bodied/white (or whatever) images! Basically it is important that children realise that all people are different in whatever way and we should be promoting that understanding by affording the same value to all. If wanting children to make 'people' whether drawing, sticking, painting; provide several different shades of 'flesh' paper, pens etc to allow children to choose. Even amongst a predominantly 'white' group there will be many shades after all! All our children are white but they are still given the option of different colours when making people. Sorry a bit wordy but you get my drift!! Same with dolls, we have a lovely selection of black, Chinese and 'disabled' (not pc I'm sorry) dolls and the mankiest set of white dolls I have EVER seen! I think this is counterproductive myself and will be buying new white ones asap! Having said that, to our children the babies are babies, they never mention the colour of the skin and although we do talk about it to them, it is wonderful that they do not seem to have any discrimination (...yet ) Other areas are dressing up clothes, role play props - e.g. chopsticks as well as cutlery, posters depicting men and women in various jobs. I hate it when it is OTT tho, you know in your face, female fire fighter, male nurse, black SAHD in a wheel chair. I kn ow these people exist but to provide balance they do need to also have images of what is happening in their own environments. In our area we have mostly white children but several traveller families so positive images of their lifestyle is far more valuable than say a traditional Hindu family if you see what I mean. In conclusion BALANCE is hte key! I'm sure my waffle is absolutely no help at all but at least if you disagree it'll give you something to write!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 It's hard because we all do it so naturally now without a second thought. It would almost be like asking how we ensure we keep breathing! Personally I think it is just as pointless to have a whole host of images from all cultures and abilities and to have no able bodied/white (or whatever) images! Basically it is important that children realise that all people are different in whatever way and we should be promoting that understanding by affording the same value to all. If wanting children to make 'people' whether drawing, sticking, painting; provide several different shades of 'flesh' paper, pens etc to allow children to choose. Even amongst a predominantly 'white' group there will be many shades after all! All our children are white but they are still given the option of different colours when making people. Sorry a bit wordy but you get my drift!! Same with dolls, we have a lovely selection of black, Chinese and 'disabled' (not pc I'm sorry) dolls and the mankiest set of white dolls I have EVER seen! I think this is counterproductive myself and will be buying new white ones asap! Having said that, to our children the babies are babies, they never mention the colour of the skin and although we do talk about it to them, it is wonderful that they do not seem to have any discrimination (...yet ) Other areas are dressing up clothes, role play props - e.g. chopsticks as well as cutlery, posters depicting men and women in various jobs. I hate it when it is OTT tho, you know in your face, female fire fighter, male nurse, black SAHD in a wheel chair. I kn ow these people exist but to provide balance they do need to also have images of what is happening in their own environments. In our area we have mostly white children but several traveller families so positive images of their lifestyle is far more valuable than say a traditional Hindu family if you see what I mean. In conclusion BALANCE is hte key! I'm sure my waffle is absolutely no help at all but at least if you disagree it'll give you something to write!! 34482[/snapback] Thanks ever so much - we also have Travellers (capital T to distinguish between reps!!)Will type this up in the morning- then only pages to sign and number!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2005 Share Posted July 3, 2005 Best of luck... we have a lady who liaises between Travellers and the Education system (fancy title but just done 2 hours cleaning and brain not working!) anyway - she lent us some really good resources, books etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2005 Share Posted July 3, 2005 There's only so much we can do to promote equal ops etc. in our settings; just last week a mum arrived late with her little boy who honed in our the buggy (just bought new buggy, high chair, cot, swing and carry cot for dolls - they are LOVING it!) which some girls were playing with - mum says "No X! Don't play with the buggy, let the girls play with it. Go and play with the boys - you don't want to play with dollies do you?" So off he goes. Unfortunately I was across the room with another group of children, so couldn't intervene, but my NN diplomatically said to the child that we can ALL play with ALL the toys at nursery. Mum said "Yeah, but I don't want him playing with dolls." What can you do? This child really enjoys playing with the dolls, although, that said, he is also the only child who has made any discrimination between the black and white dolls, preferring the white doll - wonder where that comes from?! We will be going through our books shortly to readress the balance for equal ops, making sure we have books representing a variety of ethnicities etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2005 Share Posted July 3, 2005 Hmmm yes I wonder where it came from... Makes me so mad! Before we moved, our daughter went to a Church school. I ran the Sunday school and I had a parent there once say that they had chosen the church school as at their local school the children learnt about Divali... I asked what was wrong with that... well it's not right is it? Christian country etc etc. Hmmm I went off on one about tolerance and how can we expect people to get along if we're teaching our children that only one way of life is right etc but I'm sure it went in one ear... What makes me really sad/cross at the moment is the amount of money around to support so-called deprived Traveller children when we have children who have an equal need in terms of opportunity at home but as they are perceived as not poor, clean and apparently not at risk they get no help. I don't think it is right for us to say that Traveller children are deprived just because they don't have the opportunities other kids have - I'd say not deprived, different! They may not be at the same level of development at 3 but they catch up soon enough. Still that's another debate altogether!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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