What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families.

What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families. Louise Derman-Sparks and Patricia G. Ramsey (Teachers College Press).

Many Education Next readers have long wrestled with that burning educational query: "How does one promote multicultural education if all the students in a school are white?" Now, into the breach step Louise Derman-Sparks, a faculty member at Pacific Oaks College, and Patricia Ramsey, director of a child study center at Mount Holyoke College. In the introduction, the authors bravely explain that "whites often fear that they will have much to lose if racism ends," but posit that whites actually "have much to gain" if they become advocates for social justice and "antibias/multicultural" education. The book itself is a treatise on how educators can and should promote "anti-bias" education. Chapters include "A Short History of White Racism in the United States," "How Children Construct White Identities," and "Fostering Children's Caring and Activism." Helpful tips on "antibias/multicultural" teaching include bringing in speakers from other ethnic groups, taking purposive field trips, and discussing skin color and the biases of staff members. The book also includes "don't-miss" appendices like a table of "Selected White Anti-Racism Activists" and the learning exercise "What Do Trees Have to Do with Peace?" And all of this from a flagship educational press, no less.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]