http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8786641/Dress-witches-in-pink-and-avoid-white-paper-to-prevent-racism-in-nuseries-expert-says.html

Dress witches in pink and avoid white paper to prevent racism in nuseries, expert says

Teachers should censor the toy box to replace witches' black hats with a pink ones and dress fairies in darker shades, according to a consultant who has issued advice to local authorities.



From the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz to Meg, the good witch from the Meg and Mog children's books, witches have always dressed in black.

But their traditional attire has now come in for criticism from equality experts who claim it could send a negative message to toddlers in nursery and lead to racism.

Instead, teachers should censor the toy box and replace the pointy black hat with a pink one, while dressing fairies, generally resplendent in pale pastels, in darker shades.

Another staple of the classroom - white paper - has also been questioned by Anne O'Connor, an early years consultant who advises local authorities on equality and diversity.

Children should be provided with paper other than white to drawn on and paints and crayons should come in "the full range of flesh tones", reflecting the diversity of the human race, according to the former teacher.

Finally, staff should be prepared to be economical with the truth when asked by pupils what their favourite colour is and, in the interests of good race relations, answer "black" or "brown".

The measures, outlined in a series of guides in Nursery World magazine, are aimed at avoiding racial bias in toddlers as young as two.

According to the guides, very young children may begin to express negative and discriminatory views about skin colour and appearance that nursery staff must help them "unlearn".

If children develop positive associations with dark colours, the greater the likelihood that the attitude will be generalised to people, it says.

The advice is based on an “anti-bias” approach to education which developed in the United States as part of multiculturalism.

It challenges prejudices such as racism, sexism and ageism through the whole curriculum and teaches children about tolerance and respect and to critically analyse what they are taught and think.

Ms O'Connor, who has worked with Newham and Tower Hamlets councils and recently devised equality material for Lancashire council's childcare service, said the approach, based on an "anti-bias" model of education, developed children's empathy and helped early years teachers to explore their own conditioning and possible prejudices.

"This is an incredibly complex subject that can easily become simplified and inaccurately portrayed," she said.

"There is a tendency in education to say 'here are normal people and here are different people and we have to be kind to those different people', whether it's race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or faith.

"People who are feeling defensive can say 'well there's nothing wrong with white paper', but in reality there could be if you don't see yourself reflected in the things around you. “As an early years teacher, the minute you start thinking, 'well actually, if I give everyone green paper, what happens’, you have a teaching potential.

“People might criticise this as political correctness gone mad. But it is because of political correctness we have moved on enormously. If you think that we now take it for granted that our buildings and public highways are adapted so people in wheelchairs and with pushchairs can move around. Years ago if you were in a wheelchair, then tough luck. We have completely moved and we wouldn’t have done that without the equality movement.”

Margaret Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the Parents Outloud campaigning group disagrees. She said: “I’m sure these early years experts know their field but they seem to be obsessed about colour and determined to make everyone else obsessed about it too.

“Not allowing toy witches to wear black seems to me nonsense and in the same vein as those people who have a problem with 'Bar Bar Black Sheep’ or 'The Three Little Pigs’.

Children just see a sheep in a field, whether it be black, grey, white or beige. I have worked with children for 41 years and I don’t believe I have ever met a two year old who was in any way racist or prejudice.”

However, recent research by Professor Lord Winston provides evidence that children as young as four can hold racist views. In an experiment carried out for the BBC’s Child of our Time series, children were presented with a series of images of faces of men, women, boys or girls. Only one of the faces in each sequence was white.

Children were asked to pick out the face of the person they wanted as their friend and the person they thought would be most likely to get in to trouble.

Almost all white children in the survey associated positive qualities exclusively with photographs of white children or adults. More than half of the black children made the same associations.

In contrast, people with darker faces were viewed as troublemakers.

"I have to suffer the brutal hands of political correctness" should go on that list of first world problems.

I feel like this thread, or a portion of, will at some point become about Skitch Patterson.

That explains a lot. My dad's favourite colour is green and my brother studied frogs for his honours thesis.

what about the lighter brown shades???

Put them at Shortstop

I worked in daycare. Kids aren't racist. They treat everyone the same. They have to be taught to hate a certain race of people.( Or, just watch the news if they live in Philly. )

lol

but how can we make our children more sexist?

Let them watch Californication.

If the majority of British people take this seriously, I will eat my hat.

If anything, people should be afraid of xenophobia. I read this and immediately presumed the idea was influenced by an American.

We usually assume the opposite, you guys have a tendency to do some dumb shit in your battle against hurt feelings.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041265/BBC-turns-year-Our-Lord-2-000-years-Christianity-jettisoned-politically-correct-Common-Era.html

Anything that the Daily Mail or the BBC say about each other should be regarded as exaggerated and largely untrue.

Have you ever been made fun of cause of where you were from?
Have you ever been dissed over the intercom?
Have you ever found a gift you've given thrown away?
Have you ever been told that you're the wrong shape?
Have you ever been told you're Miss New Zealand?
Have you ever had... hurt feelings?

Thank You.


Every time I see the thread title, I think for a split second that "toddlers" is some sort of slang for a British Political party.