An incident I remember about a child making a comment about another individual was my second year of teaching. I had a very mixed group of children, and there was one boy who was from a bi-racial family. One day his mom came to volunteer in the classroom and the child ran up to give her a kiss. A little girl shouts out "you can't kiss her.. your black and she's white!" My mouth about hit the floor and before I could say anything ( I was fumbling for words), the mother said to the child, that it was okay that she was his mommy and that his family is made up of African American and Whites. The girl was confused but she let it go.
I think the message that this sent was that the little girl had never seen a mixed family before and she was surprised by it. With the mother's reaction in a calm voice, the girl felt as though her curiosity had been acknowledged and she got an answer that she kind of understood.
I talked to the girls parents later that night and explained what happened in case she had further questions, they may be able to discuss it further with her. I think this would be a great opportunity for an educator to introduce a lesson on family makeup and how families can be different.
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