Devastating events of the past week cannot be ignored, particularly not with the access to social media that most of us, including our kids, have. While it may seem daunting to open up a conversation about race with your children, it is crucial that parents and teachers begin these conversations early.
Here are some resources to guide you towards facilitating a conversation about racism with your students.
Advice from experts
- Engaging Young people in Conversation about Race and Racism is a guide by the Anti-Defamation League with important, practical steps and guidance on how to open and constructively carry out conversations about racism.
- Talking to Children After Racial Incidents covers advice from Howard Stevenson, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Penn GSE, on how to approach discussing difficult and often traumatic racial events with children.
- How to talk to your children about protests and racism offers timely advice from experts on how to talk to children of all ages about systemic racism and racial stereotypes.
- Why Conversations About Racism Belong in the Classroom breaks down the overwhelming task of talking about race with your students and provides encouraging advice.
- Talking to kids about discriminationby the American Psychological Association discusses the importance of talking about situations of injustice, and gives pointers on facilitating these discussions.
Books and films
- Talking to Kids About Racism and Justice by the Oakland Public Libraryis an excellent list of books, categorized according to age groups, to teach kids about #BlackLivesMatter.
- Black History Movies That Tackle Racism is a curated list of movies that can be used to jumpstart discussions on race. They have age guidance recommendations to ensure you pick appropriate ones for your students.
- Children’s Books We Use to Teach Young Kids to be Anti-Racist is a list organized by student grade level and curated by we are (working to extend anti-racist education).
Organizations
- Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators to ‘educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy’. It has lesson plans, task ideas, and so much more to help you educate your students about discrimination.
- Anguish and Action by the Obama Foundation shares resources on antiracism and police violence, as well as how to work for reform.
- The Conscious Kid advocates parenting and education through a Critical Race Lens. They promote books on underrepresented communities and have an Instagram account with a wealth of resources on learning to be antiracist.
We will continually add to this list as we discover more relevant and useful resources. If you have any other recommendations, please share them in the comments below.
(Image by Pam Wishbow.)
