Teaching Race to Grade School Children: History and Struggle
By Kate Feinberg Robins, PhD In my blog post Addressing Race in Ballet and Capoeira , I discussed Find Your Center’s commitment to bringing race and social justice explicitly into our dance and capoeira classrooms. Here I share my experience doing this with my Children's Ballet class for 7-10 year-olds in early June. This is part of an ongoing effort to decolonize our curricula and educate our students in social justice as well as dance and martial arts. TIPS FOR ADDRESSING RACE & SOCIAL EQUITY WITH GRADE SCHOOL CHILDREN Make it relevant. Find the underlying emotions and experiences that children can relate to. Invite children to talk about their experiences, but don't insist if they don't want to. Draw on school knowledge. Ask some open-ended questions about what the kids have learned in school, and build on that knowledge in your conversation. Use what children tell you, not what you assume. If a child shares their family history, identity, or experiences