The Lagunitas School district acknowledges the heartbreak and fear from the recent rise in violent hate crimes occurring locally and across the country against the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community.
The following links and resources can help parents and educators understand bias and anti-Asian racism as preparation for age-relevant discussions with children.
Teaching kids facts also means helping them distinguish truth from falsehoods. That can be tricky these days, but one thing to have them look for is if an entire group of people has been blamed for something. “That's a red flag to prompt a conversation with an adult,” Kim says. “When [people] are presented in an inferior way, that's not fair. Kids understand fairness at an early age. We can harness a child’s keen sense of fairness to encourage empathy.”
(From Talking to Kids About Xenophobia by Leslie Hsu Oh, adventure writer, photographer, and editor. Quote by Josephine Kim, Harvard University lecturer and faculty member at the Center for Cross-Cultural Student Emotional Wellness at Massachusetts General Hospital.)
