How to help your youngest students talk about and navigate differences

Bank Street School for Children is a beacon of innovation when it comes to empowering students with the knowledge, language, and skills to navigate and lead in a complex, changing world. The School for Children, a N-8 New York City independent school, enrolls approximately 50 percent students of color and is explicit about their social justice mission and credo.

“Social justice” can carry different connotations. Director of diversity and equity Coy Dailey defines social justice as “understanding how our society functions so we can understand who’s been marginalized and how we can help shift their experience…making sure everybody feels included.” In addition to integrating this lens into the daily classroom experiences of all its students, the School for Children has created a specific racial justice and advocacy curriculum that starts with the younger students, beginning in 1st grade.

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What is the Racial Justice and Advocacy (RJA) curriculum?

Research points out that children develop racial biases at an early age, but these can be unlearned. At age five or six, children may not know how to define race, explains Dailey, but they are aware of differences in physical characteristics of identity such as skin tone. The Racial Justice and Advocacy (RJA) curriculum equips students with the language to talk about these differences and counter racial stereotypes.

RJA, which comprises weekly, 45-minute lessons over 10 to 12 weeks, is aimed at students in grades 1-4. Four to five RJA lessons incorporate cross-grade affinity groups, in which students in grades 1 and 2 and grades 3 and 4 are mixed and divided into groups of a minimum of 10. This grouping provides a few benefits: it promotes cross-grade community, increases student engagement with the curriculum, and allows older students to serve as role models in sharing personal experiences in a new environment.

At the beginning of the RJA curriculum, teachers send a form to parents where they indicate how their child identifies racially. Parents provide permission for their child to participate in race-based affinity groups. In both affinity spaces—those who identify as students of color and those who identify as white—students receive the exact same lessons. However, the content of student-generated questions and discussion varies depending on students’ lived experiences. Lesson themes include exterior characteristics (e.g., skin tone, hair texture, eye color) and hidden characteristics of identity (e.g., gender, family structures) and how people may form assumptions about others based on these characteristics.

While curriculum themes remain constant from year to year, faculty regularly update materials and lessons. Dailey works with grade-specific teaching teams and division heads to revise and refine in three, hour-long meetings prior to curriculum launch.

During curriculum implementation, teachers incorporate student interest and current events into the lessons. For example, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, teachers framed the event as an entry point to RJA concepts such as racial stereotypes, the history of disproportionate use of force against Black people, and justice. Dailey sums up the emergent nature of the RJA curriculum as this: “there’s a plan, but we have space to incorporate student questioning, concerns and interest in that plan. Our curriculum allows students the space to be part of that journey.”

History of RJA curriculum development

1990s: Faculty want to better understand the experiences of students of color, especially regarding participation and performance. Faculty and school leaders research racial identity development in children and the experiences of students of color in predominantly white schools.

1996: The affinity group, Educators of Color, advocates for creating a similar space for students of color. The school establishes one “Kids of Color” (KOC) affinity group for seventh and eighth grade students and another KOC group for fifth and sixth grade students.

2004: Inspired by the positive experiences of upper school students in KOC, the diversity coordinator, middle school faculty (grades 1-4), and middle school division head develop the “Kids of Color and Advocacy” curriculum for middle school students. The curriculum, which includes an affinity group component, is aimed at all students in grades 1-4.

2013 and on: In response to these recommendations, the school shifts its curriculum from a multi-cultural awareness approach to a more explicit focus on race and whiteness, as well as advocacy. This curricular shift is marked by a change in the curriculum’s name—to “Racial Justice and Advocacy,” colloquially referred to as RJA today.

2012: The School for Children partners with three expert consultants to review the curriculum. The consultants conduct comprehensive observations and gather information from faculty, students, and parents. Expert recommendations include the following:

• Strengthen faculty training
• Improve communication with families regarding the curriculum
• Integrate explorations of whiteness and social justice into the curriculum

What’s next for RJA at the School for Children?

The School for Children has a few goals for the future. First, Dailey would like to extend the curriculum across more of the school year. As a start, teachers could extend each RJA lesson to span two lessons. Next, school leaders aim to invest more time and resources into ongoing training for faculty beyond affinity groups and the workshop that all new faculty experience.

Finally, Dailey also discussed creating stronger messaging around the social justice aspect of RJA. “When we do talk about gender, ability, body type, sexual orientation, etc., people ask how it falls into RJA,” he notes. Dailey explains that while RJA has historically focused on the impact of race and racism, the curriculum broadly encompasses social justice and affirming all marginalized groups in society.

If you are interested in connecting with the School for Children, please reach out to your dedicated advisor.