As a child in Iowa, there were no racial minorities in my neighborhood and the values and family practices discussed in the school books were utterly White American. That didn’t mean that I was the middle of anything.

As a child in Iowa, there were no racial minorities in my neighborhood and the values and family practices discussed in the school books were utterly White American. That didn’t mean that I was the middle of anything.
Toys are the tools children use to learn about their world. Books can diversity playtime by introducing other cultures to a child’s frame of reference.
Kids are home from school (still) and the vastness of summertime stretches before us filling our vision of what that once meant, and how, due to the pandemic and to overdue showcased racial inequalities in our lives, those possibilities have forever changed. I recently read, with a strong measure of personal embarrassment and regret, a book […]