Free Resource Guide: Teaching Kids Respect, Empathy and Kindness #RespectEachOther
If you’ve seen the news lately, you know that there has been a spike in hate crimes, discriminatory acts and bullying against minorities across the United States. It’s happening all over the country, even in places like NYC which is a very diverse city that welcomes people of all over the world. This happened in Brooklyn this weekend:
Today in Adam Yauch park, someone spray painted 2 swastikas,
and "Go Trump” in the kid’s playground.
Please join us on Sun & raise yr voice pic.twitter.com/oKa6mowZxN— Kathleen Hanna (@kathleenhanna) November 19, 2016
While I’m blessed to live in another very diverse area in New York City, Astoria, the truth is that I worry. I’ve been worried every day since November 9th… I’ve been at a lost for words as well. I haven’t been able to fully digest how it is that we got here– to a time and place where parents are worried for their children because of the color of their skin, or the way they speak, or the religion they practice… to a time where white supremacists are invited to be part of our government.
I worry about my diverse community. I worry about the Muslim mothers who wear hijabs, the immigrant families who may not speak English and fear for deportation. I even worry about comments that can be made to my own family members, because we speak Spanish in public.
I feel like it’s a new world, and our children are going to be exposed to and confronted with situations where they will have to deal with instances of racism. We must talk to our kids about these situations and teach them about respect and that at no time should they stand down to bullying. I firmly believe we must not stop talking about this and we must educate our children. I am so thankful that people are speaking up and not being quiet! I am especially thankful for people like Monica Olivera aka Mommy Maestra, a homeschooling educator in the Latino community who has created the #RespectEachOther Project designed to “Promoting diversity awareness, kindness, and respect while empowering students and parents to deal with bullying behavior.”
The resource guide offers:
– a parents’ guide
– an educator’s guide
– discussion questions
– a recommended book list on books about kindness, respect and doing good (which you can also find here)
– a book list on how to deal with bullying
– a recommended book list on books to celebrate diversity.
The resource guide is FREE for parents and educators! You can download this free resource guide here.
