Education can change the perception Blog Post #3

 BLOG POST #3- Name and describe three beliefs or “characterizations”about young people that these authors discuss. What ideas about children/ youth/ adolescents shape these stereotypes and how are these stereotypes impacted by race/ class/ gender/ sexuality? Share a memory (recent or distant) when you experienced or witnessed prejudice as a young person.

The three beliefs or characterizations about young people the author discusses are

1. Native children/adults are savages

2. education has, and continues to be, interested in nurturing some of its children

3. If we make children incompetent, vulnerable, and dependent- that allows for a blank slate "child" for the adults to mold as they please.

I read "The Childhood Innocence of Settler Children: Disrupting Colonialism and Innocence in Early Childhood Curriculum" by Tran Nguyen Templeton & Ranita Cheruvu. I decided to read the article because it discussed colonialism and its effect of children. As an Indian American woman whose motherland was colonized, I find teaching it to young people is essential in this country. The idea that children should only learn about things in minor ways, connected to holidays, allows for the minimization of curiosity in children. Only in November do we discuss native Americans because of Thanksgiving, because of the neighborhood activities that occurred, not the genocide of human beings. Making pilgrim hats and Native American clothing allows kids to get their share of information that is entirely incorrect. We are whitewashing a genocide of people to intact the behavior and the process of young people. The philosophy is that if students come to us without prior knowledge of topics, teachers can simply teach the curriculum they see fit. No child will question what is being taught to them in kindergarten unless they are raised in homes where things of their own culture are introduced to them. The idea that education has, and continues to be, interested in nurturing some of its children regulates race relations by producing a particular childhood that perpetuates white supremacy. That idea is connected to how every immigrant person, especially a child, may reflect on their presence in a classroom, that they are lucky to have been given an opportunity by a white-facing country to settle and grow here.

In the video "The Adultification of Black Girls," black girls are viewed as less innocent than their white counterparts and are treated as adult women. The example given in the video of R. Kelly grooming, controlling, and sexually abusing young black girls and boys has been accusing parents and these young black children of not being young enough. In the video, they mentioned if a white girl was a victim of R. Kelly's abuse, there would've been more outrage and acts of justice. Media and education curriculums are the main ways to teach young people and people of any age to be whole and meaningful human beings. We need to CUT OUT the white supremacist ideologies and speak the truth.

To this day, I have an uncomfortable time discussing Thanksgiving because of the massacre and the genocide of a community. I have many memories of people associating being Indian with being Native American, and that was a challenging moment to teach others. I was in elementary school trying to teach people the geography of the world. Our schools were mainly white-dominated, and it became a teaching moment everywhere I went. Even to the point that teachers would let me have the floor to teach about my culture because of the misunderstanding. I genuinely believe that our curriculum taught in schools has always been taught to make the white students in the room comfortable and happy with the issue at hand.