classroom environment, differences, diverse families, diversity, People of Colour, queer, singled-out, inclusion
Ben: But when it comes to kids, I feel like, uh, what might be helpful is to say, you know it’s important to recognise the differences in your classroom, but I would caution about… about being overzealous about it. Like, drawing attention to the difference. Kids don’t want to be different, they want to be, they just want to be normal. And so, uh, I think it’s important to just honour that there are different families, different arrangements, different experiences, but, uh, I think that sometimes we – we bring in individuals to represent groups when they neither asked to be represented, or to speak for a group, or to be singled out, and so I don’t want him to have to speak, to have to represent all non-traditional families. He just – he can only represent his own family. Um, and so I found that as a, um, as a person of colour, sometimes if you’re the only person of colour in the room, then you speak for all people of colour. If you’re the only queer person in the room then you speak for all queer people. Um, and so especially a child might not be prepared, you know, might not have the capacity to navigate that kind of responsibility, um, and don’t want to be singled out. And so for teachers who want to honour, just honour it by – by including but not necessarily, um, by singling out.