Here are some highlights of my learnings:
These were a few of the themes, resources and frameworks suggested by participants:
- What are basic needs? What is the difference between needs and wants?
- Each social class is a life-giving culture with different experiences, customs and values. (For instance, lower income communities may have less material resource but more connection. Or, in low-income communities, children may be taught to use respectful forms to address adults, such as "Mr./Mrs." or "Uncle/Auntie"; in upper income groups, it may be acceptable for children to address adults by their first names.)
- What does "enough" mean?
- There are different kinds of jobs, all worthy of respect.
- Teaching basic concepts of economics - Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children: "provides teachers, parents, and volunteers with ideas for using children's literature to introduce economics to children."
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3. As significant adults in the lives of children, we have to constantly be alert to ways in which our own judgments are being revealed. My list of "Key Points" (previous post) emphasized the importance of being open and inquiring: "The goal is to find out what children are thinking and to give them permission and language to voice their ideas and impressions." This is much more challenging than I imagined as I wrote it.
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On later reflection, I realized that my response to the word "gift" came out of my own class privilege. I had an impulse to "honor" and "grace" the offerings of people in a working class community who gave their used goods to help a neighbor in need, over-compensating because I unconsciously identified this group of people as "less than." If I had shared this response with children, I would have been leaking my own unconscious bias.
So that's the ongoing challenge: Find language that is free of value and judgment. And, once again, continue to expand your own awareness.
To that end, here are resources recommended by participants:
A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne - This pdf includes an overview of some of the book's concepts and information.
And critiques of the book:
- http://rubypayneiswrong.
- "Uncovering Classism in Ruby Payne’s Framework" by Paul Gorski
2 comments:
Very thought provoking. thanks.
From a workshop participant, with her permission:
Thank you for sharing this resource with us!
As a middle school teacher, I have found a great book for talking about class and class prejudices is "I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This" by Jacqueline Woodson. It does have the "n" word it in, so teachers would need to be prepared to discuss that. As well, it deals with sexual abuse, so because of its intense subject matter, I think it's best for 7-8th graders. It does deal with race and with class in a really interesting way. A definite recommendation!
-Kat
Seattle Girls' School
Seattle, WA
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