Discussing Unconscious Bias in the Lumber Primes (K/1)

As teachers here at the Center School, we are privileged to be able to teach explicitly about racism and bias without the fear of censure or backlash (which is not the experience of many educators around the country). We also have the responsibility to center this teaching in our work with children. 

When we, as adults, talk about racism (and other -isms), bias, and injustice, we bring with us decades of experiences, cumulative learning, and an innate understanding of the nuance and complex history that surround these subjects. In the Lumber Primes, as educators who work with some of our youngest learners, we are always thinking about how we can broach these topics bravely and honestly, and also in developmentally appropriate ways. In our minds, being "developmentally appropriate" does not mean shying away from hard subject matter or difficult history, but it does mean that we have to think critically about where children are in their cognitive development and what conversations are necessary to help impart some of the nuance and context that is essential to truly understand how things like systemic racism affect our society.

Two years ago we identified "power" as an essential topic to address with our K/1 students, and because an understanding of power dynamics, and the power of individuals, groups, and systems provides a useful foundation when discussing things like racism and colonialism. With practice we have become more comfortable talking about power in ways that make sense to young children. This year we realized that frank discussions about unconscious bias have been absent from our class conversations, and wanted to lean into this concept. 

This fall much of our curriculum has focused on positive identity development, including body positivity and the science behind how physical traits are passed down from your ancestors through genes. As a part of our body positivity curriculum we had planned to read the book Laxmi's Mooch, and we realized this was the perfect opportunity to introduce the idea of unconscious bias with the 5, 6, and 7 year olds in our class.

If you don't know the story, Laxmi's mooch is about a girl learning to love and celebrate her mooch (the Hindi word for mustache) after being teased about it.  

Before reading, we talked to the class about how our brains are really good at noticing things that are different than what we are used to. We talked about how this was something that was really useful to our ancestors, when something "different" could be something dangerous like a predator. Noticing differences helped keep our ancestors safe. 

We went on to discuss how, now, even though our lives are much safer, our brains still look for what is different. Sometimes our brains still try to tell us that "different than what I'm used to" is bad or strange or scary or weird, even though that's not true. We said that in the book we were about to read, kids were noticing hair on a classmate that was different than what they were used to. They let their brains trick them into being uncomfortable and saying things that really hurt Laxmi's feelings and made her feel bad about her body.

After reading the book, we encouraged the Lumber Primes to look closely at a classmate sitting nearby and try to find each other's "mooches." The children excitedly called out when they spotted tiny hairs on a classmates' upper lip. This led to the children also thinking about other places on their bodies where hair is present.

A Me and Ezra have one too!

R  My hair is dark at the top and lighter at the bottom.

E  Sometimes I can see my own mooch, if I go like this (puckers lips and looks down at upper lip).

F  My dad has so much mooch.

R  I don’t think I have a mooch but I have hair on my legs.

L  I like my beautiful blonde hair on the top of my head and all over my body.

D  My hair is darker on the top layer and lighter at the bottom, and the hair on my head is lighter than my eyelashes.

A  The bottom is lighter and some is darker than the other.

T  My hair is the same color as my eyebrows.

R  My arms and legs have hair that is blonde like my hair on my head.

J  On my hands I have hair.

M  I have hair on my arms-- it’s black.

D  I have hair on my legs. 

A  There’s hair on my arms!

L I also have hair on my arms, legs, and on the top of my feet.

R  Me too! Tops of feet!

M  I like that I have a mooch!

To continue this conversation, teachers stated again:  Your brain might notice something about other people that is different than what you are used to. Sometimes our brains try to tell us that we shouldn't like something that is different than what we are used to, and it is our job to help tell our brains, "No, brain, that's not weird or strange. It's just not what I'm used to." 

We also talked about ways to help our brains be curious and interested instead of nervous or confused when we see something we are not used to. Kids brainstormed examples of self talk like, "That person has hair growing in a place I am not used to seeing hair. I wonder if other people in their family have hair like that, too," or "I notice someone with a kind of hairstyle I have never seen before. I wonder what they like about that hairstyle. I wonder who helps them do their hair in the morning."

S  You can ask them about the different thing.

I  What if you like their hairstyle? You could ask them about it and wonder if you can have your hair like that.

E  She [the character Laxmi] has a black mooch and black hair and I was wondering why.

I  Different makes it special.

D  Weird can be good.

RF  If someone calls me weird I take that as a compliment.

R  Different is great!

L  I have heard this slogan before: different is good.

Amy  That’s a message that I hear on the radio station that I listen to! It reminds me that there are other people out there working against the lies that people sometimes learn.

E  Everybody’s body is special.

S  No one is horrible.

RF  Nobody’s perfect, but everybody’s good!

During this conversation a tangent arose about the word "weird." One student said, "But sometimes weird is a good thing, so can it sometimes be nice to say that something is weird?"  We're so glad that a student brought this up, and it was the perfect opening to talk about the difference between self-identifying as something vs. being called that thing (this will lay some good groundwork for future conversations on other subjects). 

There are kids (and teachers) in the class who proudly self-identify as weird. Amy loudly claims her weirdness as a positive trait. We often say that Lumber Primes is a weird and wacky place, and that's why it is so awesome. We told the kids that "weird" is something you can say about yourself, if it is something you feel proud of, but not everyone feels that way about the word. To some people, "weird" is an insult. It's not a word you can call other people, and we should definitely never use the word weird to describe part of someone's body.