Newark Educator Says Dont Teach Little Kids About Racism – Newark, NJ Patch

NEWARK, NJ — Racism is a learned behavior, and it’s possible that you may inadvertently be setting up your kids to follow in your footsteps, a teacher in Essex County says.

Corey Harris, an elementary school educator at KIPP Life Academy in Newark, offers the following piece of advice for people seeking to teach about the concept of racism to 5 and 6-year-old children: “Don’t do it.”

Harris, an African-American man born and raised in a Newark neighborhood just a few blocks from KIPP Life Academy, said that teachers and parents should instead focus on “lessons on character” for young learners, including fairness, honesty, empathy, self-control, forgiveness and the consequences of their actions.

Unfortunately, Harris says, racism is something that needs to be experienced firsthand.

“Introducing taboo ideas and concepts during this stage of development are much too soon,” Harris said. “Oddly enough, and this may seem a bit strange, but a person cannot truly understand if something is ‘hot’ unless they eventually touch it and feel the negative ramifications of its heat. Although we know that one day they’ll experience it, we elect to not willfully offer it. Our aim is to be there once the experience is had to coach them through it.”

The same is true about the way young children should learn about racism, Harris said.

“Once they experience it or witness someone else experiencing some form of it, our responsibility is not to ignore it, but turn it into a teachable moment,” Harris said. “Instead, we should affirm youngsters and teach them about character.”

Harris speaks from experience, having struggled to find positive minority role models in his everyday life while growing up in Essex County. It was especially noticeable at school, where there were “very few African-American teachers teaching black and brown kids,” he said.

“Often, there was not much cultural relevance,” Harris conceded. “Many of my teachers had difficulty understanding the population they taught. As a result, it was difficult for them to build genuine relationships with us.”

Harris said that he didn’t have many black male teachers, in particular.

“My father wasn’t estranged, but I did have a one-parent household,” Harris said. “Often I needed guidance, advice of the male kind, even reprimand and accountability… preferably from someone older who looked like me. I needed black male teachers and mentors to help me understand what it meant to be a young, African-American male coming of age in an urban context.”

The hope is that 7- and 8-year-olds would have no personal experience with racism, but the stark reality is that many of them do. But leveraging the power of the classroom, Harris hopes to help lay down an ethical foundation for any of his students who may be in a similar position.

“We cannot discuss elements of justice, unless we first explicitly teach them what it means to have good character,” Harris said.

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