I agree with tobyandlui, kids dont put a meaning to stuff unless adults place one their.

We are so limited in law for the white affluent comunity! but i will tell you, that the the minority who reallly get it - Who understand that things will never get better until we are all free - free from press, free from predjudice and free from an unyeilding sencse of entitlement in the white cxommunitee, can not breeath knowing that ignrance is overwhelming!

I agree with you vacekd1001. I do believe this question was brought up in a class of teachers, but I find it hard to believe that would happen in a preschool class setting. Young children just don't think that way. Although, there may be a selective amount of parents that try to instill bigotry in their young children, every toddler and preschool age child, that I have every met, only want to play regardless of color, gender, religion or disability.

Hello and Welcome to Great Schools!!!

the way i interpreted this question was that it was a hypothetical question asked of adults learning to be teachers in an early childhood education program.
niecee would you please clarify your question.

The teacher directed this question to a class of pre-schoolers? If so, I'd say that was Not the way to handle the situation. I appreciate treating young children with sincere regard and including them in problem-solving discussion but this is a very sensitive matter and one that deserves special handling.
And because of that, there's no one right answer to your good question even though there is only right way to go with the problem and that's certainly always to encourage children to a sincere appreciation and respect for all other people.
Yet every community is different and an answer to such a question has to reflect the community's history. Most pre-schoolers are too young to have any established bigotry - children are not born fearing or disliking people who are different than they are. If these pre-schoolers are indeed shunning an African-American child, it would suggest to me that they live in a community with a continuing issue in regard to race relations. Any teacher who admirably wants to address established race relations and the presence of bigotry in the school's community needs to understand that community and how it works before doing so if they want to be an agent for change. Even in the fast-paced modern world, change can come slowly and hurrying its pace requires a careful tactful hand at the wheel to steer the community's children to a better way.

When kids are this small, they just play with however they make friendship with, they are not looking who is white or who is african american, they just want to play.

This is a funny question. Are you a teacher or a students. Do you work with young children?

Children this age just play with any kind of people and things. When my children were this age, I did not notice anything like what you have mentioned with any child, and rarely adults appeared uncomfortable with their own issue. Often, some of these parents felt sorry for themselves and realized their stupidity.

My children go almost anywhere in the town and they play with all children. We are very visible in our community and the choices are limited to some people who may not like themselves.

Any preschool teacher must learn and study extensively child development and human behavior and social environment.

Good luck!

at this age;
the teacher may have a big influence on how children interact with each other. to the kids teachers are still gods at this age. if the teacher likes the child. asks the child to go first during a game. sits at the child's table or area during free play. most of the other children will follow the teachers lead.

i would have to say if most of the kids are shunning one student they are picking up this attitude from the teacher or other adults in the class.

i am not bashing teachers i was a teacher in pre-school.

i actually had a similar situation. with a child who was adopted from another country. he had a hard time pronouncing some english words. the kids asked me why he talked funny. i said because he is from blank and that is a different country. if you went to blank the kids there would think you talked funny.

and i did what i suggested above. the child fit in just fine with the other kids.

This is a strange question. When my children were in preschool, they did not notice the difference in skin color. When my son was in kindergarten, he just thought everyone was a different shade of brown. Personally, I think if a child is shunned by another child, it will be due to parental influences.

I agree with drjohnson. In preschool, kids play with kids. They see little people and are good to go. It's the adults that bring pre-existing biases and judgments to the table. Since this is for a class, you can try to bring that up, but I'm sure they want an answer. I'd simply say blame the parents :)

For instance, we were at a local bowling center last night, and my 8 yo daughter and I had stopped at Starbucks. Normally my daughter takes the cardboard 4-cup carrier and wears it around on her head. Last night, however, an Orthodox family was in the center, and before my daughter donned her 'hat' I explained to her that it might be inconsiderate to do so tonight. And I realized after I did it, she hadn't even noticed the toddler's yarmulke or peyos (the hair in front of the ears). I'm still torn what I should have done. The only thing I do know is that my 8 yo just wanted to wear her cardboard 'hat' and I was pretty ham handed about it.

It's a strange question. In my experience, pre-schoolers don't pay my much attention to race, other than maybe asking some innocent and obvious questions. This question seems to be a set-up, making lots of assumptions about the situation and then asking the others to play along with those same assumptions.

If this hypothetical situation was really happening, I would first try to figure out why. Perhaps there was something else about this child like social skills? If it did indeed seem racial, was there some outside influence?

I'm sure that pre-school teachers are always on the look out for kids that don't seem to click with the others. They must have ways of trying to set them up into paired or group activities.