Teaching about bias, race, and social justice

I've been thinking about and struggling with this question a little bit because it is not one on which I am an expert, but I think it's so important that I needed to put some things out there.

We need to talk to our kids about racism and social justice. We need to talk to all the kids. Saying that we don't see color isn't valid. Pretending it doesn't exist is a privileged position. We need to talk.

Since I'm not an expert, I want to direct you first and foremost to the #CharlottesvilleCurriculum hashtag on Twitter. Amazing and important things are being said there by people much smarter than me.

I also think one of the best resources out there is Teaching Tolerance and I particularly like the lesson on Exploring Race in Children's books.

A few books that have crossed my house recently:





I love this series of biographies, and my kids really connected to Rosa Parks's story and asked all the right questions about racism in America. My worry with teaching it in a historical perspective is that it gives the impression that racism in America is over, which is problematic, so make sure you make that part of your continued discussion.



My daughter picked up this book because she loves Misty Copeland. What I love most about it is that she directly talks about how hard it was to grow up and never see dancers that look like her. This is a great way to start a discussion about representation in media.




This autobiography gives an age appropriate introduction to what it means to be transgender. It's kind of amazing how easily my kids accepted this idea compared to a lot of adults. Jazz is older now and there are books about her for older kids/teens too, but I haven't read them yet.

It's just a beginning. Like I said, I'm not an expert, and if you have good resources, I'd love to hear about them because I'm still learning too. The important thing is to talk about it, have a critical eye, and start to teach your kids to do the same.