In my many years of teaching, my main focus was….to reach all of my children…
Along with the rigors of the required curriculum…I believed in order for young children to be successful…they needed to know I cared…
Since this new millennium, especially teaching children from a diverse African American background…
I believed…those children needed to feel pride in their history…not just in February, when Black History is part of the curriculum…
I felt taking those opportunities when I could to fit in to our day..
Talks about how their values of character such as: kindness, working hard, and … never giving up!
Are those qualities that people should be judged…
And not by what they look like…
I would always call upon that memory of
” Dr, Martin Luther King” …
And how much he believed and never giving up on this Dream….
Using myself as an example of when I was a young child I would share that I would watch the news about Dr. King on television… and what a special man…he was…
…My children with eyes wide open felt that he was real , because Ms Sexton saw him!!!
I would also emphasize the story of Rosa Parks, as another real person, I also heard about when I was little, and her bravery in how she spoke out, and took a stand to something that was wrong!
I would also decorate our room with posters, and the children’s art portraying their black history…
All my personal anecdotes helped convey their history in a very relatable way…Making it relevant and hoping they too would be proud of who the are ; striving for values and achievement…
All our children, whatever their ethnicity… race… religion… would be…
Loved…And Accepted…!!!
Janis Sexton...Teacher...Advocate 