Preschool teachers strive to teach diversity
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Pre-kindergartners Anibal Campos-Ramos, Dylan Keddy and Danielle Craig play together at Parker Road Preschool in Shrewsbury Oct. 10. Parker Road Preschool is seeking funds for multicultural education tools.

Shrewsbury - While preschool age children may notice diff erences between themselves and their classmates such as skin tone, diet and whether Santa goes to their house, teaching them other more abstract ideas when it comes to race, individual belief systems and cultural behaviors is the difficult but necessary job that Parker Road Preschool teacher Jenna Roxo faces in the classroom every day.

If America is a melting pot of different types of people, Roxo said, her class is a stew made up of rich cultural beliefs, behaviors and histories that need to be nurtured and mixed together to create a rich classroom experience.

This is why Roxo, teacher Anne Pullman and speech pathologist Arlena Boyle have applied for a grant to help purchase multicultural teaching tools that will help children understand the more abstract concepts surrounding race.

"We want to teach them that although we all have differences, we're all also the same and we all want to live peacefully," Roxo said. "We want them to feel comfortable asking questions and sharing their own experiences, ways of doing things, and teach them that it's okay to celebrate our diff erences."

The materials purchased with the grant would be used to create destination stations throughout the classroom in diff erent curriculum areas as well as purchase a multicultural "children of the world" meeting carpet and childappropriate world map.

"When we talk about diff erent holiday cultures we would like to be able to point to the map and show them where that celebration takes place," she said. "They need strong visual tools to understand at this age."

There are 65 diff erent languages spoken in the Shrewsbury schools. Thirteen percent of Parker Road students are English language learners, and Arlena Boyle said feeling that their various cultures are represented in the room is a factor in their comfort level.

"It makes them feel like they're accepted and part of the group, and that they're not that different after all," Boyle said. "When you feel like people understand you, you always feel a little more at home."

The educators said they hope to give children the skills to have open dialogue with their peers in the spirit of education and celebration of their diff erences all their lives.

"Through this we'll teach them how to speak to someone appropriately and what are the phrases that should be used as their baseline throughout life," Boyle said. "We're hoping to set a new standard so that they don't struggle with conversations about race the way our generation can sometimes struggle."

The teachers expect to find out if they've received the grant from the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce in November.