Prejudice Reduction Workshops for Kindergarten Students!
I have been a Prejudice Reduction Workshop Facilitator for Greater Mankato Diversity Council since 2011. Here is an example of the Prejudice Reduction Workshops for Kindergarten Students. Missy Manderfield and I presented two Prejudice Reduction Workshops to kindergarten students at Monroe Elementary School in North Mankato, MN today! The students in kindergarten explored the concepts of “same” and “different.”
We had been trained by the Greater Mankato Diversity Council in a curriculum to teach respect as its core value. The Prejudice Reduction Workshops were first introduced to middle school students in March 2005. These research-based workshops are adopted from the successful Rochester (Minnesota) Diversity Council curriculum.
Discussions and activities presented during these workshops are shown to reduce prejudice and discrimination. This success is attributed to the power of community members speaking to their children, “This is how we want to get along in our community. This is what our life experience has shown us is important.” The students engage in discussion, learn facts about the cultures and religions of people in their own neighborhoods and remember the activities and key concepts taught at each grade level. Cumulatively, the Prejudice Reduction Workshops have had a positive effect.
The lessons are age-appropriate, research-driven, and continually evaluated and revised. The lessons progress from kindergarten, who learn about “same” and “different,” to 7th grade students, who learn to what it means to have “world-mindedness.” Emphasis is placed on knowledge and not hurting others.
Of the 39 students that we met today:
37 recalled that they learned the words “same” and “different”
33 recalled that they learned other kindergarteners have many different things they like best
35 reported that they learned that other kindergarteners can be both different from them and the same as they are
37 thought the books we read today showed that differences in the world are fun
One student said, “We are all the same because we all like the same book!!”
One student said, “We are different because we all come from different families!!”
One reason the Greater Mankato Diversity Council is focusing on education is the Mankato area’s changing demographics. During the 1990’s, the non-white population more than doubled. Immigration from Southeast Asia, Africa and the Eastern bloc nations brought refugees to southern Minnesota, similar to the way most of our forefathers and grandparents arrived here. At present, students in our schools speak 31 different languages.