Anti-Oppressive Policy

[Spixie33]

I think your intentions are excellent and well -meaning but that the age group may just not be right for it like others have said.

I think it is great that you will bring these values to your own children but I would tread lightly with other people's children.

Primarily parents wants their children to be safe, fed, nurtured and to give them a good self esteem or start in life. I am not sure it is our place to really instill much besides manners, esteem, courtesy and curiousity into the children we look after.

I once told a parent in an interview that we learn about safety like learning about strangers and they got upset and didn't like it. Obviously they didn't sign with me but it was a good lesson when I started that parents don't really want you teaching values to kids that they would/should be doing at home. And that was just about stranger danger which in theory is an excellent lesson.

some of the kids 2-3 are confused about their own families and why dad lives somewhere else than mom and why they have certain days where they are picked up by another parent etc. that is enough for them to deal with compared to learning about how other kids might live and what family structure they might have. I think that sort of learning is best suited for age 6-8 when they are doing social studies at school and can understand these concepts.

I think it is great if you want to have multicultural dolls or handicapped dolls or read books about kids around the world etc. If one of my daycare kids says something like 'this girl dresses like a boy" or that someone is colouring with pink even though they are a boy or something similar than I tell them that everyone likes different things and that it is okay to like different things. That is about as much as I expect them to understand.

I think that you can accomplish some of what you want by just nipping any close-minded comments in the bud by replying with a more open-minded comment and by teaching about other kids in the world. I wouldn't even
touch religion. That has red danger flags all over it

Oh and I should add that I don't make a big deal about race either. I put toys or different ethnicities into play and never say - "look this one is black and this one is white" etc. I just refer to any different toys as a positive and talk about how they are the SAME. Look, they both are wearing a skirt and they both have pretty hair." etc. I never point out differences but instead try to teach kids that it is standard practice to accept these toys and that they are the same as them with two eyes, a nose, etc.....