When Best Practices Shows Off
Best practice tells us that each child should be represented in our classrooms. I have the typical dark skinned baby dolls and “boy” dress up clothes and other cultural sensitive materials.
Today Sandy brought me the Lakeshore mail carrier toy and said “ what is this?” I started in …” you know the man that brings our mail every day? This is a woman.” I pointed out her bag and a letter.
Sandy looked at me with the biggest smile and touched the toys head and said “Look at her hair. It’s beautiful.” At that moment I realized Sandy wasn’t interested in the gender equity it was that simple fact that this toy looked like her. It had her hair.
I smiled from the inside out. Research tells us what creates amazing safe environments for children. It’s a good day when you see it in action.