Reflection

On my page, "What's Important" I briefly touch on the social change narrative. Social and Societal change initiatives do not promote the basic knowledge fundamentals our students need, they can actually distract from it. There is a fixed amount of time in a school day and we need to fill that time with teaching that is beneficial to the students learning. I believe children are born color blind; meaning they don’t see the color of a person’s skin. Children learn by example, from watching us, they are a reflection of their surroundings. Teaching students to see color/race at a young age only underpins the racial divide narrative. I support teaching children to be kind, honest and respectful to all, and to remain color blind. Let me be clear; I am not suggesting prejudice do not exist in society or that schools should be silent in discussions related to racism. I simply do not agree with the theory that teaching students to focus on another student’s race is how we eliminate prejudices in society. Remembering, our children are a reflection of us, they learn by watching parents, adults, and the environment around them. They only spend a fourth of their day in instructional learning, the rest of their learning is societal. The societal change Marten Luther King Jr. spoke of, starts with us, and our children with follow. We must lead by example.