Roots and Wings

York, Stacey. Roots and Wings: Affirming culture in early childhood programs. St. Paul, Minnesota: Redleaf Press, 2003.

In the first few chapters of this book, York looks at the increasingly diverse nature of classrooms in North America and looks at the nature of prejudice and racism. She relates the different stages of the process of forming prejudices to the developmental tasks children undertake at different ages. The book is presented in textbook format, with an general overview of the research in each area and descriptions of particularily relevant or interesting studies. It covers the topics of prejudice, racism, culturally responsive care, bilingual and multicultural education, culture and communtiy while providing suggestions for the creation of culturally relevant and anti-bias classrooms and activities. I like the language of "anti-bias" as a way of talking about respect and positive interactions across difference.

Chapter 8: A Culturally relevant, Anit-bias Classroom suggests materials for each of the different areas of a preschool classroom. In the "book/quiet area" there are some general guidelines and specific title suggestions for books that contribute to each of a variety of goals including: books that connect children to their home culture; culturally relevant concept books; books that teach cultural practices and holidays; bilingual/dialects; main character is a child of color; diversity; cross-cultural and cross-racial friendships; bias and standing up for oneself and others. I also liked the questions suggested for use in evaluation of children's books, including some which focused entirely on the illustration style which is sometimes overlooked. I appreciated the explicitness of some of the questions and examples. For example: "Are people of color used as animals or objects (like Native Americans in alphabet books and counting books?)" Even though this seems obviously objectionable, I think it's much more useful to articulate exactly why it's problematic rather than assuming people will just know.