A Better Way: Respecting and Celebrating Cutlures

This episode was one that really hit home for us.  Watch it again here. 

For many years I (Miss Ing) had read the book Tikki Tikki Tembo to classes.   I remember hearing it read to me as a child.  Only in recent years have I come to understand what is so wrong with this story.  The author never intended to be offensive, but the book really is.  Back in 1968 this book even won an award from Horn Book.  Today it really shouldn't be read anywhere except to explain the issues that make it so very troubling.  Read this post from Grace Lin, she explains it so well.  Even as late as 2019 I read this book in schools, I did change the country to "a far away place" and I changed the names, but that really wasn't enough.  I know better now and I will do better.    

Thank you for the feedback we have received from this program.  We are grateful to be learning and have a long way to go, but we will continue to try to do better.    

Learning for Justice addresses the difference between appreciating another culture and appropriating it.  

Here is a great article from Parents Together about talking to your kid about Cultural Appropriation as it might come up when choosing a Halloween costume.  

Here NAEYC explores culturally appropriate guidance for those working with little ones.