Recently, the Today
show spoke about a recent Cheerios
commercial that seemingly caused a great deal of controversy. The commercial includes a white
mom, biracial child, and an African-American dad. According to what was stated on the Today
show, many people were offended by this
advertisement. Cheerios had to
disable comments on YouTube because of all the negative comments. The Cheerios company added that they
were trying to portray the American family because there are many multicultural
families in America today. I feel that it is sad that we are in the year 2014,
we have a biracial president and we are still having this issue of prejudice today.
I believe that as teacher we need to teach respect for diversity. It is important because many, many families are diverse. By teaching diversity the teacher creates a place where the students feel cared for, accepted, and learn to appreciate differences. An activity I recently saw about diversity involved two different colored eggs. The teacher demonstrated that when she cracked the two eggs they both had the same thing in the inside. I also saw the following poem on Pinterest, saying that we are all different but that we are all important. This is the poem:
“The Crayon Box That
Talked –
Wouldn't it be terrible?
Wouldn't it be sad?
If just one single color was the color we had?
If everything was purple? Or red? Or blue? Or
green?
If yellow, pink or orange was all that could be
seen?
Can you just imagine how dull the world would
be if just one single color was all we got to see?”
What
are your thoughts? Should the
curriculum include the teaching of respect for diversity? Should we teach an appreciation of racial,
ethnic diversity in school? Should we
include biracial families in our discussions?
Should General Mills have pulled this advertisement that featured a biracial
family?
I just wanted to start by saying that I absolutely love the poem and activity provided in your prompt. I can definitely see myself using both in the future. I really like the emphasis on teaching respect and appreciation for different cultures and races, I personally believe that that is one of the best ways to build acceptance in children. I saw the Cheerios commercial online and I loved it! I thought it was an appropriate show of a multicultural family that exists today. It is a shame that it caused so much uproar. I think that this example only further stresses the importance of teaching an appreciation of diversity for future generations.
ReplyDeleteI believe that diversity should be taught to be respected at home and in the classroom. Through my hours of observing, I have seen schools promote "respect week". Throughout the week teachers teach lessons on respect to their class, there are even assemblies on respect. Respect for diversity should be included during respect week. Respect is something that people use throughout their entire lives. Districts should consider incorporating respect into the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI believe that diversity should be taught to be respected in the classroom and at home as well. If the students are not learning this at home at least they will be exposed to it at school and can eventually decide for themselves. I'm not sure I believe that the curriculum should have respect for diversity but I think that part of the teachers job is to indirectly teach things like this. Yes, we should definitely include biracial families in our discussions because that is the world we are living in now. I think it is very relevant. No, I do not believe that General Mills should have pulled the advertisement.
ReplyDeleteI am observing in a full day kindergarten and I can see the benefit. The kindergarten has more time to focus on a subject and be able to help the student individually. Students are also give play time twice a day which is helping with there social skills and problem solving skills. I feel that the students are learning more by being in school the whole day.
ReplyDeleteI actually read this book to the class I am observing and they loved it. I think that this book is amazing and can be used for any grade level ! It is such a simple book with such a great lesson. I do think that it is our job to teach respect and appreciation for other cultures within our classroom. When we show we value differences, our students will learn to value them also.Creating a classroom that accepts differences makes the learning enviornment feel safe. I will be using this book again and again in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think people just need to find things to complain about so they don't have to look at the issues in their own lives, to be perfectly honest. The comercial is very cute, and doesn't offend anyone. My future family is going to be biracial, and after taking genetics class, I can't wait to see how my children turn out.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the kids at my daycare are very aware that some kids are not the same color as they are, and they are not afraid to say it. We, as educators, have to teach them that its okay if everyone is different and a color is just a color.
I used to babysit for this little boy who was adopted into a white Jewish family, and he was African American. My husband and I took him out to eat, and me being caucasion, my husband being spanish, and this little boy being African American, people looked at us like we were mutants, or they looked at us as a very young couple who adopted a child from another race and looked at us and gave us the thumbs up sign.
It's a Cheerios comercial. Seriously.
As a future teacher, I believe that it is very important for schools and teachers to teach about diversity. By teaching students about diversity, we are teaching students to respect one another. By providing students with examples of diversity through sharing information, pictures, or participating in activities, we are exposing them to the world’s diversity. In the case of the Cherrio’s commercial, it is showing young children that there are all different types of families. However, it doesn’t matter what these families look like on the outside, it is what is on the inside that matters. Additionally, I do not think that General Mills should pull the commercial because it is a picture of the everyday family and we do not want to teach young children to be prejudice about biracial families.
ReplyDelete