When racism creeps into children's play and books

Books and dolls. Those two items are pretty much mainstays in young children’s classrooms and bedrooms throughout the United States. But for children of color, those items – and how children interact with them – warrant a closer look to see if racism has seeped into kids’ educational and play spaces through these otherwise harmless objects.

That’s what I took away from a piece authored by Toni Sturdivant, an early childhood specialist, and another written by Lindsay Pérez Huber, who studies racial inequities in education. In both articles, the scholars reveal how heartbreaking experiences with their own young children led them to research how racism can be found in children’s play and children’s literature. Both articles were among the most popular education stories in 2021.

Also well read were articles about Amanda Gorman’s poetry, why we remember more when we read something in print versus digitally, and how marijuana affects academic performance.