The Pros And Cons Of The Anti-Bias Curriculum

In school’s children come from an array of backgrounds and each has its own impact on students. As an educator it is important to expose children to different cultures and ethnicities students may not be aware of. Teachers need to celebrate and cherish differences. “Children learn by observing the differences and similarities among people” as well as absorbing the spoken messages that adults share in their life. One curriculum that some schools follow is known as an Anti-Bias Curriculum. The Anti-Bias Curriculum was created to nature young children and teach and educate them about issues of diversity and equity in the classroom. There are four main goals of an Anti-Bias Curriculum, they are, to gain knowledge of a confident self-identity, gain experience of interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, think critically about bias and learn to stand up for others and themselves in a time where they face bias (Hohensee & Derman-Sparks, 1992). When establishing an Anti-Bias, classroom setting and learning environment for student’s teachers go through a process of four identifiable phases.

Some pros that I could see in implementing this in the classroom is that students are getting early exposure to differences in color, language, gender and physical ability of people different from themselves. Students are also being exposed in a safe environment where they can continue to grow their knowledge on diversity. Along with exposure teachers are also able to share teachable moments with students through questioning and different activities. In contrast there are also some cons. One significant con that I can think of is that some of the topics may be sensitive and be too deep for students of such a young age to comprehend. I believe that teachers need to be taught and trained in this curriculum to successfully educate and make young mind aware of similarities and differences in