The Schools Committee would like to thank Dr. Diane Hughes for offering her insight about how to start conversations at home about race and the panel of parents for sharing their stories.  Read more...

Dr. Diane Hughes, professor of Applied Psychology in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Development, and Education and co-director with Catherine Tamis LeMonda and Niobe Way of the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education, gave parents a presentation on the best ways to talk to young children about race. She reminded parents about not shying away from the difficult topics, finding age-appropriate ways to address race, creating a home and family life that models cross-racial relationships and interests, and taking the time to address one's own biases on a regular basis.

The panel of parents, which included Catherine Cronin, Thair Joshua, and Erin Scherzer, told their stories about addressing race with their kids from their personal perspectives raising black, bi-racial, and white children. They talked about the need to address race issues with the other adults in their kids' lives (other parents, teachers, etc.), the importance of having books and toys in the home that are racially representative, the need to discuss media images and biases, the importance of affirming them in a world that often doesn't, and the value of engaging them in their own racial justice work.

We can't thank thank Dr. Hughes and the panelists enough for sharing their insights! Check back here for some video of Dr. Hughes' presentation. 

The Schools Committee invites you to have a look at this resource they developed:

Strategies for Talking to Children about Race