Anti-Bias Activity

Cultural Ways Feeling Box Activity

By: Caitlyn Rossa

The activity I chose was the Cultural Ways Feeling Box Activity from the textbook Roots and Wings By Stacy York (Page 195). I chose this activity because touch is a sense that children don’t get to experience as often as taste, sight, smell and hearing. Sure, you could say children touch things every day, but this activity is different because it is challenging the children who participate to actively think about what they are feeling/touching. This activity is important because children love surprises, guessing, talking about themselves and hearing about their peers as well.

Cultural Ways Feeling Box Process:

 

Themes: Senses, Alike and Different, Our Class, My People. 

Objectives: Identify ones own cultures artifacts, appreciate ones own culture, appreciate the cultures of peers.

Materials Needed: Collections of small items and objects, fabric swatches representing the home cultures of the children I your class, and a feeling box.

Description/Process:

·        Collect Materials needed; collecting the items from children’s families might take a couple weeks, depending on if parents remember to bring them in. You as the teacher could even supply some or all on your own if you’re willing to. So don’t plan this activity the day-of or the day before you plan to do it, it takes some preparation.  Figure out what type of Feeling Box you would like; this can be any type of box you would like to use, preferably opaque.

·        Talk to the children about culture, warm them up to the idea of talking about Our Class and Our Friends. Ask questions to get their minds thinking about each other.

·        At circle time, the day of the activity, tell the children that we are going to do the Cultural Feeling Box Activity. Have the box near you, and one at a time, have the children come up to you and put their hands inside the Feeling Box. Ask them to pick an object in their hands without pulling it out, and see if they can guess what the object is. If the children cannot guess, have them say out loud what it feels like, and maybe the other students can help them guess.

·        After each child guesses, tell them to pull the object out and see if they were correct? Ask questions like;

o   What culture uses this object?

o   Who is from that culture, in our classroom?

·        Repeat this process until every child has a turn

Variations: These are very important if you have different age groups.

·        You could make the Feeling Box a Feeling Bag if desired.

·        You could add in pretend food to the Cultural Feeling Box.

·        When the child pulls out the object to see if they were correct, and you ask the culture questions listed above, there is a chance for children to ask more questions, make more observations, or maybe as the teacher you have thought of more questions to ask, so don’t limit yourself to one or two questions! This activity is about exploring and learning about each other!

·        If you would like the activity to last longer and/or be easier for younger children; you could have the child put the object back into the Cultural Feeling Box, (after guessing and pulling it out) and if the same item is picked more than once, they will be able to guess easier or without help.

·          Another great variation; after the activity is over, set the Cultural Feelings Box in the sensory table. Children will love to reenact the activity.

1.     Why did you choose this particular activity?

I chose this activity because out of the five senses, feel is the one that is the most difficult to relate to culture. In reality, there are a couple ways to do this activity, in order to make it for children at the preschool level, there isn’t much I would have to change.

2.     What is the appropriate age for this activity?  Explain with information from the Roots & Wings text, Ch 2 (include page numbers)

This activity is appropriate for “Threes and Fours” because at this time, children are beginning to ask a lot of questions. At this point, if they are in the dominant culture (white people), they might not have a lot of experience with minority groups. This activity would most likely need to be depressed the tiniest bit for three year old children, but if they were in a preschool with ages 3-5, the activity could remain how it’s stated in the textbook. (York pg.17)

This activity is appropriate for “Fives and Sixes” because children at this age are starting to understand a little bit more about culture and are able to identify their own physical features. Children of this age are still curious and asking lots of questions, and they will “enjoy exploring the cultural heritages of their classmates.”

(York, Pg. 18)

For this activity children who are seven or eight years old, could extend on this activity even more than what it says in the textbook. Children of this age could end up doing a whole project just on this activity alone. As it says in Roots and Wings; children of this age group understand feelings, pride, and even a sense of empathy. These children have also moved through the preschool stage where their understanding was inaccurate and disoriented. It’s important for children and teachers who use this activity, to really think about how they could expand or depress it.

(York, Pg. 19)

3.     Explain why this is an appropriate theme.

The Cultural Ways Feeling Box activity has themes of; Senses, Our Class, My People, and, Alike and Different. These themes are appropriate for children from 3-8 because children as young as 3 can easily identify things that are alike and things that are different. Children of this age group will also benefit from the Our Class and My People themes because it promotes group unity, getting along, sharing, and noticing the important things about each other. This activity could even strike up more questions, conversations, and could lead into a whole “project”! Concepts from the handout include:

·        Everyone deserves respect

·        Everyone is important

·        People are similar

·        People are different

·        We can learn about the daily life of people we know

·        Culture comes from parents and families

·        There are different kinds of families

·        Families live in different ways

·        Many different people live in our community

4.     Relate your activity to three concepts from the handout Goals for Anti-Bias Curriculum. (handout, supported by Ch 7)  This is where you answer "how does this activity meet anti-bias goals?"

This activity meets three concepts from the “Goals for Anti-Bias Curriculum” handout:

·        Recognize, appreciate and respect the uniqueness, beauty, value and contribution of each child.—This activity has the chance to be a great interaction and question and answer period for children. This activity will promote the uniqueness, beauty, value and contribution of each child, because something from each child’s culture will be included in the box.

·        Introduce children to other cultures.—This activity will introduce children to other cultures because they will get to see pieces of every child’s culture when the items are pulled out of the box.

·        Encourage children to respect other cultures.—Having multiple chances for each child to be talked to about their culture, or let them talk about there culture, will give the listening children respect for that person in their class. It can also be said that by respecting each unique peer in their classroom, they will also be respecting their culture. 

How can we relate this activity to children's books?

Let's Eat

By: Beatrice Hollyer

This book is about what different people/children eat, around the world. This book is a great tool for supporting the Cultural Ways Feeling Box activity. From the variations section above, you can add pretend pieces of food to the Feeling Box and this book will go right along with it. It's cultural and inviting because of the photos in it, and can really teach children how many different types of food there are in the world.

 Throw Your Tooth on the Roof

Sally B. Booter

 

This book is a great cultural addition to your school's library, and a great addition to the Cultural Ways Feeling Box. This book is basically about tooth traditions in many different countries. Even though there aren't going to be TEETH in your Feeling Box, this book can help the children expand on what they've learned so far. After talking to the children about cultures of the children in their class, they can use this book to compare who does what with their teeth!

Picture Book Analysis

 

Walt Disney's Peter Pan

By: Walt Disney Company, John Hench, J.M. Barrie. Part of Disneyland Records; Originally written by J.M. Barrie. Adapted from the Disney Film: “Peter Pan”.

  

Illustrator: Al Dempster

Year of Publication: 1953

 

 

Summary:

Walt Disney’s Peter Pan is an adaptation from long ago, this story is about Peter, Wendy and her two little brothers, John and Michael. The story tells of an adventure they take; they fly to “Never Never Land” with Peter Pan (who is from Never Never Land). When the young children arrive in Never Never Land, they meet the Lost Boys, who are basically Peter Pan's family. Next, they go on a couple short adventures; first, Peter helps save a little Native American girl, then, Peter also saves Wendy and her brothers from the evil Captain Hook. After Peter rescues them, they take over Captain Hook’s ship, but Wendy tells Peter it’s time they head home. Peter then delivers Wendy and her little brother’s safely to their nursery window from the flying pirate ship. 

 Also, I would like to point out, this story of Peter Pan has been adapted, changed, moved around, translated and recreated hundreds of times within it’s past years of existence. This story might be different than what anyone would remember as the Peter Pan they learned about in their youth. 

 Analysis:

Using the article “10 ways to Analyze Children’s Books for Racism and Sexism” (Honig, 1998) the book Walt Disney’s Peter Pan has some signs of being a racist and sexist story. The most prominent parts of the book which show these issues are the illustrations of Native Americans in the story, and the story line in general. 

Pictured Above, "The Indian Camp":

 As the children head over to "Never Never Land" they notice the mermaids, pirate ship, and the "Indian Camp"; which is those tiny teepees in the distance behind the mermaids and the rocks. Basically at this point in the story the author is comparing Indians to Mermaids and Pirate ships. Pirates are a semi-make-believe type of people, but not governed by race, and mermaids are completely make-believe (as far as we know) and they also are not governed by race--even though in this picture, every mermaid is light skinned. Indians however, are Native American people and yes they happen to be classified by their race. In the story, it mentions the word "Indian" often and the Indians in the book differ greatly from the Native American tribes that exist today. So, first of all, the title of this group of people is not correct, and second, they are making a comparison of Native American people to two fantasy groups of characters, which is insulting to Native American people.

Pictured above; "Indian dancing/playing"

 

First, Being a Native American person, doesn’t mean you are a feather wearing, "Half-naked squaw"(Hoing, 1998) red-skinned, Indian who dances around a fire pit and sleeps in a teepee every night. However, in this version of Walt Disney's Peter Pan, this must be the case because the only Native American’s that are shown are the kind described above. The illustrations of this book are made with a large amount of stereotyping (Hoing,1998); basically assuming that the only thing they do is dance around their camp all day. In the text of the story, it says "Usually the Indians playfully captured the Lost Boys" but in the illustration, it only shows Peter, Wendy and her brothers dancing in a circle with the Indians. 

Walt Disney’s Peter Pan illustrates Native American’s as wild people. Of course, in the context of the story, Wendy and her brothers want to be friends with “the Indians” so they aren’t feuding with them for any reason. I would also like to point out, they go to “Never Never Land” which is an imaginary place; where mermaids are real, and pirates exist in the current time. Does the fact that they are basically going back in time, excuse this stereotypical judgement of the Native Americans? Maybe it would if the Native Americans were portrayed with less of a generalization, and more with some individuality?

In an article called “A Look at the Myth of Reverse Racism” (Wise, 2002) there is a story that relates to this Native American issue at hand:

 

“Indian students at Northern Colorado University, fed up by the unwillingness of white school district administrators in Greeley to change the name and grotesque Indian caricature of the Eaton High School “Reds,” recently set out to flip the script on the common practice of mascot-oriented racism. Thinking they would show white folks what it’s like to “be in their shoes” and experience the objectification of being a team icon, indigenous members of an intramural basketball team renamed themselves the “Fightin’ Whiteys,” and donned t-shirts with the team mascot: a 1950’s-style caricature of a suburban, middle class white guy, next to the phrase “every thang’s gonna be all white.” Funny though the effort was, it has not only failed to make the point intended, but indeed has been met with laughter and even outright support by white folks… Of course the difference is that it’s tough to negatively objectify a group whose power and position allows them to define the meaning of another group’s attempts at humor: in this case the attempt by Indians to teach them a lesson... Objectification works against the disempowered because they are disempowered. The process doesn’t work in reverse, or at least, making it work is a lot tougher than one might think. Turning Indians into mascots has been offensive precisely because it is a continuation of the dehumanization of such persons over many centuries; the perpetuation of the mentality of colonization and conquest. It is not as if one group—whites—merely chose to turn another group—Indians—into mascots. Rather, it is that one group, whites, have consistently viewed Indians as less than fully human, as savage, as “wild,” and have been able to not merely portray such imagery on athletic banners and uniforms, but in history books and literature more crucially.” (Wise, 2002)

This excerpt shows that even something as small as a mascot can hurt people from that race. I wonder how white people would feel if in "Never Never Land" there were the "Whitey's Camp" with a lot of chubby white people? My theory is that this would not go over well with white people, they would say it's racist, and stereotypical. Reversing the roles in this type of situation helps to know that this IS a racist addition to the book Walt Disney's Peter Pan.

Since I am not Native American, I feel as though I don’t have a say in whether this book's stereotyping would offend me or not. I think this goes onto a person to person basis weather or not they are offended by the way Native Americans are portrayed in this story’s illustrations. 

Pictured above: Wendy, her brothers and the Lost Boys tied to a mast (top) and captain Hook with pirates (bottom). 

  

I also noticed in Walt Disney’s Peter Pan, that the story line is a little bit sexist in the fact that the main character of the story; Peter Pan, ends up being the one who saves Wendy and her brothers from Captain Hook. In the story Wendy even says “...Peter Pan will save us!" Here, Wendy is telling Captain Hook that she can't help herself, her brothers, or the lost boys, but she knows Peter Pan will save them. This is a classic Damsel in Distress type of storyline that Disney has used before. Peter Pan is the man-hero and the woman (Wendy)  is in distress until Peter comes to her rescue on the next page. Peter and Wendy seem like they are part of the "Active Doer Stereotype" (Honig, 1997) as well. Basically, every time something happens in the story, it's because of peter, OR Wendy asks peter to do something, and he obliges. This shows directly that Wendy is an "Inactive Observer" while Peter is the "Active Doer." (Honig, 1997)

 

References:

Honig, B. (1998) 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism [PDF Article] Retrieved from; HD 25 class

 

Wise, T. (2007) A Look at the Myth of Revers Racism [Article] Retrieved from http://www.raceandhistory.com/selfnews/viewnews.cgi?newsid1024893033,80611,.shtml