As early childhood educators, we embrace our role as caregivers. In our practice, we design and re-design systems of care to make them more people/child-centric. Our priority is to increase the well-being of all children through a strength-based approach. All educators must counter societal racism with special attention to Black children, whether they be girls, boys, or trans children – because we have that opportunity and duty. These children “belong” to us in the best sense of the word. We create and celebrate community.
Much to our dismay, our students grow up and face a world where they may be in harm’s way, and we can’t protect them. In particular, we want to protect them from violence against their bodies that is so deeply embedded in the structure of our society founded on racism and supportive of white supremacy.
Since society designed the reality we currently live in, we can design a different one. What could we envision and perhaps bring to the world we know? In this poem, Junauda Petrus, in all her wisdom and compassion, movingly offers a spark of hope – a policing situation that comes right out of early care and education – “Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers.” The idea she births shows care for those whom society disporportionately punishes. She imagines changing an institution in a way that implies we all belong together.
If we rethink our priorities, we increase the well-being of all.
Please share your thoughts on Petrus’s dream in the comments section below.
Jim Clay is the former long-term director of a Quaker preschool in Washington, DC. He is currently on the training team for Gender, Sexuality and Families in Early Childhood at the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute.