Parents - When Do You Teach Your Kids About Racism, Jim Crow, Holocaust, WWII, etc.?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:40pm

How old are they when you first introduce them to it and what is your strategy? Do you ease them into it or just drop them right in?

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:52pm

Some people refuse to acknowledge that these things actually happened and that we're still feeling the affects of them today just to spite the world because they feel that they are forced to be "PC" when they're just being asked not to be an open asshole in public.

[Izzie2]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 1:17pm

my parents didn't water anything down for me, but didn't get too explicit. At around 8 they bought me historical fiction in the form of the American Girl books. I was te kind of child who HAD to find out that sort of thing. Some good books that managed to suddenly appear on my bookshelf where: Dear Americas, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, The Diary of Anne Frank, Journey to Topaz, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Number the Stars, and Harriet Tubman biographies.

[wexy]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 4:01pm

My father was a Holocaust survivor and he always spoke about it.
There were a lot of his friends that never did.
I think that kids should be taught not to hate at a young age like learning languages.
They're also like sponges and soak up the prejudices of those around them.

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 4:09pm

I think it's something you gradually learn over a period of time. For me it was school that first addressed these topics not my parents.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 4:33pm

RIGHT after I explain about the Easter Bunny and sex.

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 4:36pm

Hahaha!