Anti-Oppressive Policy

[playfelt]

You might try talking to the parents of the 4 year old boy because that is where his views will be coming from. There is a difference at 4-6 when children are comfortable with themselves and ready to venture out into the world and the more restrained confined world of 1-3 when they are very egocentric. Frankly they don't care about some of those things and if you watch them play are quite diverse in how they play.

For the 4 year old just use comments like if he says pink is for girls. Just say pink is a colour and so is yellow and you can wear whatever colour you want.Then leave it at that. When you are playing pretend you can be anything you want to be even a dragon or statue or something that shows the absurdity of what he is saying. Those kinds of statements will go a long ways to teaching what it is you want to teach without being preachy which is what you are going to have to be very careful about or you will rub even open-minded people the wrong way. I like to think of myself as very accepting and open but at the same time would not allow anyone else to "teach" my children values that I had not approved of. I have had issues over the years with what was taught in schools.