Tag: Inclusion

DEI And Children’s Books

Image by Samuele Schirò from Pixabay

This post expands on my previous post about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Today I will discuss its connection to the Ten Commandments.

The MAGA movement seeks to eliminate DEI initiatives while advocating for Ten Commandments displays in public schools.

I disagree with this completely. The First Amendment to the US Constitution calls for the separation of church and state. It also prohibits the government from establishing a religion and ensures religious freedom for all.

Let’s break down DEI and analyze the Ten Commandments.

For this evaluation, we’ll use a kid-friendly commandments template I found on Etsy. TPT also offers a free version. Despite some slight variations, the general principals are the same.

  1. Put God First
  2. Worship Him Only
  3. No Bad Words
  4. Work 6 Rest 1
  5. Obey Your Parents
  6. Harm No One
  7. Don’t Cheat
  8. If It’s Not Yours Don’t Take It
  9. Tell The Truth
  10. Don’t Be Jealous Of Other People’s Stuff

Let’s start by defining diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), then examine how the Ten Commandments relate to DEI and its application in teaching.

Diversity-the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.

Equity- the quality of being fair and impartial.

Inclusion- the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those who have physical or intellectual disabilities and members of other minority groups.

(Sourced from Oxford Languages)

In my modest opinion, diversity and inclusion align with the 6th Commandment. Diversity and equity are not harmful to anyone.

Equity aligns well with the 9th Commandment. To be fair and impartial, you must tell the truth.

Commandments 7 and 8 are also relevant to the DEI initiative. ‘Don’t cheat’ and ‘if it’s not yours don’t take it’; that’s how you treat everyone fairly and equally.

EdW reports that the U.S. Department of Education has created a portal where the public, students and teachers can report practices of diversity, equity and inclusion in public school classrooms. According to the Trump Administration, DEI practices are seen as divisive and as indoctrinating children.

I find this nonsensical, given that half of the Ten Commandments, as previously noted, are encompassed by DEI. The main focus of my teaching was to instill in my kiddos the importance of embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. Or as the Ten Commandments state ‘harm no one’, ‘don’t cheat’, ‘if it’s not yours don’t take it’, and ‘tell the truth’.

School is supposed to help prepare students for real world diversity where people of all creeds, races, religions and genders live. This can only be achieved if children learn proper social skills and appropriate behavior for interacting with others. This is their recipe for a successful life.

Many children’s book authors aim to incorporate DEI into their stories. Indeed, this is a major theme explored across many children’s books, and I’m no exception.

Kamyla Chung and the Creepy-Crawlies:

The lack of diversity in my classroom book shelf inspired this story. Kamyla Chung is a bi-racial child of Chinese and Black descent.

Kamyla Chung and the Classroom Bully:

This sequel to Kamyla Chung and the Creepy-Crawlies tackles bullying and child abuse, which undermine social equity.

Teddy Bear Tea:

Although the characters in this book are animals, I made sure to include the inclusive line, “In colors of black, brown and tan, we feasted, we danced and we ran!”

A Fish Named Fancy:

People generally assume Fancy is female. This is incorrect. Making Fancy male was intentional; I wanted to show that boys can be fancy too.

In pretend play, children enjoy dressing up and exploring gender roles, such as playing mom and dad.

The boys sometimes want to play roles traditionally considered feminine, like babysitting and baking. The same is true for girls who embrace more traditionally masculine activities like using tools, building with blocks, and making roads for cars and trains.

Gingerbread Kids Hide-N-Seek:

I contacted Dasguptarts to work on this book shortly after the attack on Israel. I made it clear to Dasguptarts that I wanted a Jewish and a Muslim child in the book.

My goal was to include everyone and demonstrate that friendship transcends differences. Children shouldn’t suffer the indignity of exclusion because of the terroristic acts of others.

My books are a small representation of what most authors include in their stories. Will that work in an ultra-conservative classroom? They could ban the books, but that would mean banning nearly every children’s book ever written.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

As a retired Pre-K Head Start/Kindergarten Teacher, I understand the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion. For over twenty years, I taught and modeled how to implement these three simple words in my classroom every day.

I’m not trying to cheapen these three powerful words by using the word ‘simple’. My aim is to draw attention to how such a simple concept has become corrupted by extremists. Why is treating others with human dignity ‘woke’?

I just don’t understand and I know youngsters feel the same way. Woke is fair, and every child knows when they’re not being treated fairly. “That’s not fair!” is a common exclamation among children. I’m sure you said it when you were a kid. I know I did.

Robert Flughum summarized how to be a decent human being in his book All I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.

Here is a list of the key concepts from the book:

  1. Share everything.
  2. Play Fair.
  3. Don’t hit people.
  4. Put things back where you found them.
  5. Clean up your own mess.
  6. Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
  7. Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody.
  8. Wash your hands before you eat.
  9. Flush.
  10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  11. Live a balanced life- learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  12. Take a nap every afternoon.
  13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
  14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
  16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – “LOOK!”

How I wish people, myself included, would remember these tenets when they grow up and realize their actions or lack thereof have far-reaching consequences.

I’m outraged that MAGA removed DEI from federal institutions. We’ve already seen the effects on the mainstream media. Joy Reid’s departure from MSNBC is one example of an ever-growing ocean of disparity toward people of color and women.

We must hold fast to our core American principle: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all!

The sentence doesn’t say for the few, for the ultra-rich, for white people only. It says FOR ALL!