By telling an entire generation of American children that they’re either all racist or oppressed by racists, we are destroying their futures, right along with our own. Most people understand that it is up to adults to teach children and help them make sense of the things life will teach them on its own. But few actively understand that children don’t know anything other than what they experience growing up. Children have no frame of reference. Kids in the Middle East who are taught that America wants to destroy them and keeps them oppressed will undoubtedly grown up with…
Racism is taught
When children learn, it’s the only thing they know. Think about that. It may sound obvious, but the difference between child learning and adult learning is that adults have 20 years of filters and perspectives built up that informs how they take in this new information. Meanwhile, when children learn, they have little previous information against which to compare the new. So when they take in new information, often it’s all they know. That becomes the foundation upon which all other learning rests. When children grow up in an environment in which physical characteristics are not openly called out,…