Part of the registration process involved attending a course on the various aspects of working with young children. The course covered several topics, such as food hygiene, play, the business side of childminding/running a playgroup, safety precautions, behaviour management and equal opportunities. I led the sessions on the last two topics.
This post is about equal opportunities, inclusion and challenging stereotypes regarding race, gender and disabilities.
Race was a tricky subject to explore in a predominantly white area. The sessions about it were always very heated. "Why should I have black dolls and books showing people of other races if all the children I look after are white?" they asked. "Why should I have to spend money buying ethnic toy foods and cooking implements if none of the children eat any of those things?"
Why indeed...
It was a lot easier to discuss these things in some other areas of the country, where the population comprised a varied mix of people from different cultures. It was easier to find positive and negative examples within a more diverse community. In Surrey, it seemed that these "other people" only existed in exotic locations, far, far away.
Advertising in those days reinforced this notion. Ethnic minorities were shown in ads for vacations or when charities appealed for money to help some famine stricken country. Apart from that, they didn't seem to exist. Ethnic minorities living in Britain didn't need mortgages, didn't buy insurance, food, clothes, toys, didn't have bank accounts, telephones, household appliances... What came across from their complete absence from ads about everyday life was that they should be seen as no more than a colourful backdrop for white people's vacations, dancing in their lovely typical garments, riding camels and elephants.... or pulling some charitable heartstrings, starving, with their bones protuding, their children covered in flies.
Things have improved in the past twenty years. Most toy shops now sell black dolls and books have improved, but other resources are still lacking. Ads these days generally reflect the cultural and ethnic mix of the British population. Children growing up in Surrey won't have the surprise of their lives when they move away from the area and see people with different colour skins, doing everyday stuff, just like themselves.
In the area of disability, however, things didn't move very far. Children and adults with disabilties still inhabit the world of charity. Advertising is a good reflection of the attitudes towards any segment of society. Disabled people don't need financial services, don't buy clothes, don't eat at fast food restaurants. They only appear in the commercial breaks when they're needy. Toys and books that move towards inclusion are not available outside specialist outlets. When dolls with Down syndrome and other disabilities became available in the UK, they caused controversy. Some parents objected to their children's disabilities being highlighted and made into an object of fun. I beg to differ. The idea behind such toys is to combat the invisibility of people with disabilities and to give children with special needs opportunities to identify and relate to dolls like them, developing a sense of self. I believe it also helps able bodied children to see disabilty as part of life, not something hidden, "over there," much like the ethnic minorities I discussed earlier.
Unfortunately, even when there are attempts at integrating children with special needs into UK mainstream schools, most of the time the schools miss the mark. They provide a special needs assistant and that's it. I have observed many children with Down syndrome who had assistants in the classroom. The teacher interacted with the rest of the pupils, the assistant alone interacted with the child and s/he wasn't involved in any of the activities, didn't work with the other children, didn't play with them. There were no classroom resources to help integration or identification. Paying lip service to integration by having a disabled child in the classroom who remains isolated and who interacts only with a glorified babysitter does nothing for the disabled child or for the able bodied children.
As for gender stereotypes, my research led me to the websites of some very popular toy retailers. The first category in their search boxes is "search by gender." I selected "boys" from the drop menu and had pages of construction toys, cars, train sets, firefighters' and policemen's outfits. Then I selected "girls" and was greeted by dizzying pink pages of dolls, cooking stuff, hairdressing kits, make-up sets, nurses' and fairies' outfits. Our little friend Riley had a good rant about it in a video I posted a few days ago...
What prompted me to write this long post was the inclusion of Ryan, a six-year-old model with Down syndrome, in the Nordstrom and Target catalogues. Without fanfare. He was just another child in group of children wearing nice clothes, visible and included.
I believe that providing the right resources in play and educational settings and increasing the visibility of minorities in everyday activities would go a long way in creating a more inclusive society. Ethnic minorities would no longer be seen as distant and exotic. People with disabilities would no longer be seen as strange, uncomfortable or simply needy.
Marketing forces seem to dictate how products are presented. Ethnicity and disability rank lower in the scale than the gender divide. Ironically, in these days of gender equality, it seems to be the most difficult stereotype to tackle...
