Education

College Hosts Bias Intervention For Toddlers

REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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It’s not too late for bias intervention with your toddler thanks to an Evergreen State College initiative, Campus Reform reports.  

The Olympia, Washington, university is planning to host a workshop on Feb. 17 for parents who are worried that their three-year-old has already fallen under the pernicious sway of bias.

“A is for Anti-Bias,” is designed to “help family members interested in anti-bias education for children ages 3-6 to hear and talk about strategies, books, and resources that can be used at home,” according to a website introduction to the event.

“The workshop will include a short presentation, handouts, and small group discussion prompts that get folks talking and sharing,” the description read.

“Teaching for Change” is responsible for this unique social engineering initiative. The group’s website offers a wealth of information on its “anti-bias curriculum” that is “an approach to early childhood education that sets forth values-based principles and methodology in support of respecting and embracing differences and acting against bias and unfairness.”

These principles require “critical thinking and problem solving by both children and adults. The overarching goal is creating a climate of positive self and group identity development, through which every child will achieve her or his fullest potential.”

This is all based on a book entitled “Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves,” which offers “practical guidance to early childhood educators (including parents) for confronting and eliminating barriers of prejudice, misinformation, and bias about specific aspects of personal and social identity.”

Evergreen’s Child Center is hosting the event that seeks to communicate all of this “practical guidance” in just one day. On regular days, the center offers “early child care and education for infants through age 6,” with students, faculty and staff first in line for enrollment. The Center is provided money from tuition, student activity fee subsidies, government grants and college donations.

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