You take sips of your coffee, leaning over your child’s shoulder as you read a school assignment guideline together. The scene repeats itself more and more over the course of the year, and you start to notice something. Your child’s culture, their ethnicity, their race is seldom, if ever, represented in the curriculum.
It reminds you of when you were in school and you were assigned “the classics” or “the canon,” neither of which was inclusive or diverse in its lead characters or its writers. Back then, you and your parents may not have known how to advocate for a more inclusive curriculum, and assimilating was the key to success. But that doesn’t need to be the case anymore.
If you value your family’s heritage and you want to see it passed on to your child, you have more agency than you think. In the words of civil rights activists and labor leaders Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, “Sí, se puede.”
When children don’t see themselves reflected in the curriculum, they can show signs of disengagement, boredom, and even being overwhelmed by oppressive feelings of "otherness" as their heritage is repeatedly marginalized throughout their academic career.
When the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) released its 2019 survey results on diversity in children’s and young adult literature, it noted that of 3,717 books surveyed, 1% featured a Native American main character. The absence of Indigenous peoples as central characters in libraries and schools across the nation isn’t just problematic for Native Americans; it’s problematic for all Americans. Indigenous children don’t see themselves in literature, and the rest of us can’t see them, either. While this article may suggest what course of action parents and guardians can take to foster greater inclusion of their own heritage in their child’s school, advocating for greater inclusivity in general is key.
But what’s to be gained? Tolerance, understanding, respect, and peace are just a few positive outcomes. Inclusivity in our children’s curriculum can lead to greater appreciation for diversity. Not only might it improve relationships between the plurality of Americans with whom we coexist, but it can improve relationships between children and their families.
Start With the School
So now that you realize your child’s curriculum isn’t inclusive of your family’s heritage, what do you do? You may want to begin by speaking with your child’s teacher. But here’s the thing. Go into this meeting understanding that in many cases the teacher is simply following the guidelines set up by school administrators. They may not have much leverage to change the reading lists, assessments, or assignments. You may even want to consider doing things like asking the teacher if you can help organize a reading group or a lesson. And if you have the time and resources, maybe even join the parents’ association or a planning committee.
And remember, there are instances when the curriculum opens up to diversity but the educator isn’t properly trained to teach these new and oftentimes unfamiliar lessons.
While you can expect pushback from your child’s school, just know that there are many educators, researchers, librarians, and organizations fighting for inclusive curriculums. Some of the latest approaches include “culturally responsive pedagogy” and “culturally sustaining pedagogy.” The first, forged by the likes of Geneva Gay and Gloria Ladson-Billings, calls for educators to address cultural, ethnic, and racial disparities in the classroom by acknowledging their students’ heritage, affirming it, and including it in the curriculum wherever possible. The latter, advanced by Django Paris and H. Samy Alim, advocates for sustaining a student’s cultural background, like preserving Indigenous languages, for example. And if you’re not sure what the word “pedagogy” means, that’s OK. It’s just a fancy way of saying “teaching.”
And this isn’t just about diversifying a reading list. Culturally relevant teaching can be applicable in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. So, for example, instead of teaching children how to count apples, they can be taught how to count plantains or empanadas. I’m just kidding here (but not kidding). Even more importantly, culturally relevant teaching in the STEM fields means treating all children — of every cultural, ethnic, and racial background — as fully capable and competent at math.
When the School Is No Help
If you find that you’re not getting anywhere with your child’s school, then you may want to think about other ways of teaching your child about your cultural, ethnic, or racial values.
One area of exploration is heritage schools. These are supplementary courses or lessons taken after school or on the weekends. If you’re interested in preserving your family’s language, it may be a good idea to enroll your child in an activity or group where the lesson and all interactions are held in your heritage tongue.
You can even make up your own cultural curriculum for your kids. This can include sourcing books for your child’s home library that center characters who reflect your child and your family’s culture, ethnicity, or race. Find other parents with a similar aim and swap books between families. The American Library Association offers a great list of suggested diverse works.
When it's safe to do so again, you can take your child to museums, festivals, restaurants, and stage productions that reflect your heritage, too. And here’s a good cheat. If one area of interest is language, change the Netflix language setting so your child can watch cartoons and movies in your heritage tongue — assuming it’s available in the network settings.
You Do It Out of Love
Keeping your heritage alive is a noble and at times necessary act. It can be an act of survival. Allowing your family’s cultural values to live on in your children can help them become more secure and feel a greater sense of belonging, not otherness. These acts of transmission, of teaching, can be as small as passing on a recipe or as big as challenging the curriculum. Either way, these are acts of love, and no one has the right to stop your child from saying the word "love" in your mother tongue.
