Furthering sterotypes

From Jere Longman, NY Times, February 26, 2010:
"What the audience of 11,771 at Pacific Coliseum had witnessed was an unprecedented combination of technical difficulty and willowy sophistication as Kim became the first South Korean skater to win an Olympic gold medal. She held up under enormous pressure to succeed as an athlete, a cultural icon and a vanquisher of competitors from Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula for 35 years through the end of World War II." 


From Alan Abrahamson, www.nbcolympics.com, February 26, 2010:

"Her free-skate score, 150.06, obliterated the old world record -- hers -- by roughly 17 points. "It was almost a man's score," Kim said with a laugh.

Indeed, her final overall score, 228.56, was about 10 points better than what Jeremy Abbott, the two-time U.S. national champion, managed here -- and would have put her ninth in the men's Olympic competition.

The men are allowed to do one more jump in their free skates than the ladies -- which makes what Kim did all the more impressive." 


From Juliet Macur, NY Times, February 26, 2010:

"After months of playing it cool, saying the pressure to win the Olympic gold medal had not weighed on her, Kim Yu-na of South Korea finally let her emotion show on Thursday." 


"Vanquisher of competitors from Japan", "almost a man's score", "finally let her emotion show"? What's there to say?

Do They want diversity?

Note to self: some cultures and some households do not wear street shoes indoors. Make sure you wear clean and no-hole socks or stockings in case you have to take off your shoes. Luckily, I did.

Yesterday's dinner was in a home that did not wear shoes indoors. The last time I was at a school parent gathering where this was the case, it was a family choice, not a cultural practice. I remember how much conversation surrounded this request to remove ones shoes and also how disarming it seemed to the group. Women, usually raised up by heels, were suddenly eye to eye with other women; suddenly noticeably shorter than some men. Some people were uncomfortably undressed in their bare feet. Last night, in stocking feet, bare feet or slippers provided by the host, everyone seemed to take it in stride without a comment.

We settled in for the "presentation" part of the evening, a formal introduction of the school personnel in the room and expressions of appreciation to all who had helped with the evening. The respect for the process was palpable in the silence that embraced the speaker. Everyone sat with a view of the speakers and listened as each spoke in turn. It was such a familiar scene from my childhood when my parents would gather with friends brought together by a common group membership for an evening that often included some kind of formal discussion or presentation by members of the group.

During the question and answer portion, one parent asked the question, "Do They want the diversity we bring to the group? How do They feel about having us in the school?" It was a question raised by an Asian parent who described his Asian peers as a homogeneous group, but as a minority group that brings diversity to an institution that has purposely increased its racial and ethnic diversity in recent years. Now, with a student population identified as made up of 30% students of color (non-Caucasian), this parent raises a question that reveals his personal lens and reminds us that diversity may be a good thing if it gives you access, but not necessarily if it reduces Their access. There was a bit of uncertainty in his voice that may also have been asking, "Do we belong here?"

Homogeneity is an interesting thing. The face of a group may give it the appearance of homogeneity - same race, same color hair, same dress - but once you get inside the group the homogeneity loses a bit of its sheen and shows a texture that lives below the surface. Dig a little and small differences begin to distinguish individuals in the group. Dig deep enough and you discover the diversity within the group.

If we can get to that more permeable, more fluid texture below the surface, can we shift the conversation from Us and Them or Majority and Minority to something that better represents the complexity of the question at hand?

Affirming identity

I read Greg Mortenson 's children's version of Three Cups of Tea to a group of 4 year olds last week. It was their 100th read aloud book and the reading had evolved into a highly anticipated event. They were listening to every word.

The book first describes Mortenson as a mountain climber who goes to Pakistan to climb K2. He become ill and is nursed back to health by people in the village of Korphe who find him. They learn later that he is a nurse and refer to him as Dr. Greg. Grateful for their care, Dr. Greg makes a promise to help build schools for the children of Korphe. At one point, after hearing both references to the same man, a child asks, "Can you be two things at the same time, a mountain climber and a nurse?" I take a moment to think of the appropriate response, but another child says, "Yes. See my babysitter is a babysitter and an actress," and another child says, "I'm a kid and I'm an animal expert!" 

I had recently been told by a teacher in our high school that his concern is how students foster a sense that you belong or you don't based on the way they define themselves and their sense of group. This pressure to be more like the group or to risk exclusion pressures many students to feel they have to make hard choices about how they define themselves. The community can, in effect, shut down the possibility that a person can be identified by more than one "thing" by expecting a person to choose among the possibilities to better fit into the group or to work toward a more one-dimensional identity. Kenji Yoshino raises the same question in his book, Covering. As a student and a young man, he struggled with how to be a gay male and an Asian American male and a lawyer when each identifier was not always compatible in the daily life of the others. 

I just viewed Mai's America  on YouTube. It's the story of an exchange student's experience living in the American South (Mississippi and Louisiana) and searching for her identify as her environment pushes her to see herself from new perspectives. At every turn Mai is forced to think about her identity as she tries to build new relationships far from her home and family. It reveals the great human desire to fit in or belong and the hard work of identity development.

When a four year old says with confidence that someone she knows can be two things there is great hope. She, in her moment of human development, knows that one part of forming an identity is how you see yourself reflected back through other's eyes. She is doing that all the time as she listens, sees, and watches to understand what others are telling her about who she is. Her babysitter is lucky to have her as a babysittee.

Cross-professional thinking

Last week I watched Treeless Mountain , the story of two little girls in Korea. I started out thinking it was just a slow-moving movie about a mother and her children, but as practically every frame gave a glimpse into the hearts and minds of these two little girls I realized that it was a story about relationships, loss, attachment and nurturing care. It was a perfect example of Urie Bronfenbrenner's theory of "one adult who gives unconditional love" for every child.

In my search for movies about culture I seem to keep coming across movies about children. One of my favorites is Mongolian Ping Pong  about a gang of young boys who find a ping pong ball and spend the movie trying to figure out what it is and who it belongs to. Eve and the Firehorse is another wonderful movie starring two sisters.

I had imagined that I might have to give up my focus on early childhood to commit full-time to diversity iniitatives. This coming together of child development and understanding of culture is reassuring. I am reading Beverly Tatum's book, Can We Talk About Race?, and she describes "the ABC's of creating inclusive learning environments." A=affirming identity, B=building community, C=cultivating leadership. Sue Bredekamp & Carol Copple, in Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, describe three areas of information teachers need to pursue developmentally appropriate practice. (1) knowledge of child development and learning, (2) knowing the strengths, interests and needs of each individual child in the group, (3) knowledge of the social and cultural contexts in which children live. I think I have come to a cross-road.

The language of diversity

Young children use language to formulate their understanding of the world around them. The schools of Reggio Emilia believe that children have many languages at their disposal and have used the concept of "100 Languages" to represent this much broader vision of self-expression. Oral language is, of course, a very powerful language and the degree to which we develop expressive and receptive language has implications for learning, depth of understanding and the formation of relationships with others.

In 2005 I met a family with two moms. They were the first couple to discuss with me the need for sharing the language of family within the community. They knew from experience, and perceived within this new community, a discomfort that adults expressed when they met them and their children. What do your children call each of you? How do you want other adults to refer to you when telling their children how to address you?

This conversation led to a group discussion and, five years later, we are continuing this conversation as we attempt to talk more openly about race, ethnicity and socioeconomic class. It is not unlike early language learners who need labels to represent things, people and places so that they can begin to formulate and express their understandings.

Last week a high school teacher told me that she needed help finding the language with which to respond to students' concerns about race and difference. She said that she had been in situations where students wanted to discuss difficult issues and she found herself limited in her ability to respond to foster and enrich the conversation. Sitting in an advanced geometry math class I had the same feeling. The vocabulary of the discussion had little meaning for me even though I could follow the thinking and guess at the definitions of the terms.

Jerome Bruner says that children use language to create culture. What is the language of diversity that will lead a community to develop a more inclusive, more sensitive and better informed culture to support authentic and caring relationships among its members?

Setting out

We set out on this journey on February 4, 2010.  That's the day Tom released his letter to the community and I released my letter to the parents telling them I had taken on a new responsibility for next year. It is so interesting how you can use your internal filtering systems to shift what you see, what you receive and what peaks your curiosity. I walk through the school in a new relationship and everywhere I go I am greeted with the most affirming and motivating responses to Tom's announcement.

This consistent affirmation has a richness that points to great potential, urgent need and infinite possibilities. It also indicates that whatever it is we have set out to accomplish is still elusive. There is no common name for this journey.

Where are we going? That's the big question. Even bigger, may be the question, "Where are we now?" Some first impressions are that wherever we are there is lots to see and do, but also many indications that we must step carefully as we continue the journey. It isn't yet clear if we are headed into the forest or out into a clearing; over a mountain or up a gentle hill.