Optional Diversity Community Meetings

Please read the blog and add to our list of children's books on diversity. Please also share with us children's books that you read to your children and why. We want to hear from you!

We also want you at the upcoming optional diversity meeting on January 31st:

For the upcoming meeting our two diversity chairs Rikki and Mollie have selected two readings that will be discussed at the meeting from these two resources: The First short reading is entitled, "The Complexity of Identity: Who Am I?" by, Beverly Daniel Tatum. The second is an excerpt from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves by, Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards.
We hope community members will respond to their e-mail and join us for a continued discussion on diversity.

At our last meeting discussed in more detail below we had about 11 of us who attended the meeting, 3 of which were teachers and four board members. We hope to have more participation in the upcoming meeting. Be corageous! Make it a priority! Join us for more dialogue on January 31st.


We had an optional diversity meeting back in November 8th, 2010. For this first meeting, we were asked by our diversity chairs Mollie and Rikki to bring a favorite preschool age appropriate book that we felt communicated an important message about diversity for young children. We critically examined the messages the books communicated to children and brainstormed follow up questions/conversation starters we could utilize as parents to engage our children in their own learning about these topics.

We asked attendees to share with us the books they chose and why. Here are a few comments:

Kathy Chew (Teacher):
Dim Sum by Grace Lin
"Diversity is an important part of my CCC experience and I try to attend each meeting. This year's meetings have been awesome; attended by a number of CCC members and discussions on a variety of topics. I chose to share Dim Sum by Grace Lin. This is a book I purchased many years ago to share with our children. We enjoyed reading about a young Chinese girl's experience of going to a restaurant with her family to eat dim sum, a variety of Chinese dumplings and desserts. As our kids (and now grandsons) grow, reading is always an imporatant part of our family time. As a parent and teacher, I search for books that show pictures and tell stories of many family structures. When I find a book with Chinese culture, I am even more excited. This book also shares a common idea that everyone can relate to: food!"

Rikki Moreno (Diversity Chair):
Pablo's Tree by Pat Mora
"I chose this book because it wove together the magic of a boy's tradition of celebrating his birthday year after year with his grandfather. The book touched on the topics of adoption, cultural traditions and family relationships in a way that was age appropriate for our children. Lastly, the illustrations were sweet, simple and interesting."

Elizabeth Stark (Front Yard Rep):
Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by LeUyen Pham
"I love this book because it's about a little girl of color running for president of her school when she finds out there's never been a woman president of the United States. It's a book about gender exclusion, but to my mind, it makes good points about race, too, and about voters picking "the best person for the job," not the person who looks like them or seems to share an identity with them. And how that might change the world . . . It's a little sophisticated for our 3 & 4 crowd, but my kids enjoy it, and it's not too early for them to see images of an African-American woman (and possibly also Latina) President. I'm preparing them for the future!"

Mollie Crittenden (Diversity Chair):
My People, by Langston Hughes, Photos by Charles R. Smith
"I like this book because it does several things. It teaches children an important and beautiful poem written by an important African American writer. It affirms blackness and black people as being beautiful inside (souls) and out. It has great photographs of people, and lends itself easily to conversations about how to be black is beautiful and bright (which contradicts most messages in our society about Black and dark skinned people), and what a soul is/how important it is to be beautiful on the inside."

Mollie put together a list of some children's books that focus on different aspects of diversity:

Diverse Families:
Families are Different by, Nina Pellegrini
Daddy, Papa and Me by, Leslea Newman
Mommy, Mama and Me by, Leslea Newman
And Tango Makes Three by, Justin Richardson
Heather Has Two Mommies by, Leslea Newman
Who's In A Family by, Robert Skutch
Buddy G. My Two Moms and Me by, Mary Warren Folk
The Family Book by, Todd Parr

(Anti) Gender Stereotypes:
The Sissy Duckling by, Harvey Fierstein
The Paper Bag Princess by,
Oliver Button Is A Sissy by, Tomie de Paola
Amazing Grace by, Mary Hoffman
Princess Grace by, Mary Hoffman

African-American:
Shades of Black by, Sandra L. Pinkney
My People (Langston Hughes) photos by, Charles R. Smith
Amazing Grace by, Mary Hoffman
Princess Grace by, Mary Hoffman
I Love My Hair, by Natasha Tarpley
Be Boy Buzz by, Bell Hooks
Happy to Be Nappy by, Bell Hooks
Yo! Yes? by, Chris Raschke
My First Kwanzaa by, Karen Katz
Before John Was A Jazz Giant by, Carole Weatherford
Grace for President by, Kelly Dipucchio

Latino:
Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English by, Alma Flor Ada
Margaret and Margarita by, Lynn Reiser
My Way/A Mi Manera by, Lynn Reiser
My Abuelita by, Tony Johnston
Abuela by, Arthur Dorros
Pablo's Tree by, Pat Mora

Asian American (we need more titles):
Dim Sum by, Grace Lin

Bi-racial Kids/Families:
Black, White, Just Right by, Marguerite W. Davol
Black is Brown is Tan by, Arnold Adoff
My Tw Grannies by, Floella Benjamin
Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids by, Kip Fulbeck

Affirming Diversity in General:
I Like Being Me! by, Todd Parr
It's OK to Be Different by, Todd Parr
The Colors of Us by, Karen Katz
26 Big Things Small Hands Do by, Coleen Paratore
Everybody Cooks Rice by, Nora Dooley

Diversity: "The work is not the workshop"

As we start the new year we have an opportunity to expect more of ourselves and to strive for progress in our lives. We would like to publisize all the great efforts of CCC in this direction. On November 30th we had Tarah Fleming from Start Dialog (www.startdialog.com) come and talk to our community. She said things like "the work is not the workshop" meaning our work to continue anti-bias education is in our everyday lives. Especially at those inopportune moments when your child springs a question on you that you may not know how to answer. She also said intention and impact are two different things.

Tarah shared with us what she believes is the key to peace. She shared Sue Miller Hurst's five disciplines of dialogue:
1.) Listen
2.) Suspend Certainty - for a minute believe and practice "I don't know"
3.) Hold the Space for Difference - Can you stay at the table with someone you consider culturally and ethically rude? How you interact with this person is a skill.
4.) Slow down the Inquiry - allow for silence, pauses, suspend interogation, summarizing, and clarifying. Allow people to share and tell more without interruptions.
5.) Speak from Awareness - Bring forth your experience. Do you speak from a place that you always speak from? Speak from who you are right now.

You can download these principles in more detail: mfinley.com/kraken/sue_miller_hurst.pdf

As we move forward let us continue to do the work in our community!

Our diversity chair Mollie could not have said it better: "Our next challenge, from my perspective, is to figure out how we are going to utilize and practice the information Tarah exposed us to in our work together."

Mollie and Rikki have sent out extensive e-mails with resources and information for us to continue to gain heightened awareness and consiousness building.

Please share with us your comments and what you think the next challenge is for our community in relation to diversity.