Oppression

When I was doing my undergraduate program for early childhood education, a professor of mine told a story about a child in her daughter's fifth grade class. The fifth grade class had gone to a local children's science museum for a field trip. The field trip permission form stated it was a science field trip. My professor's daughter enjoyed the trip, but one of her classmates suffered a sense of oppression because of one of the trip's activities. The museum was offering a special exhibit that day; a cow, and a discussion on the milking of cows and their uses for beef. One of the children in the classroom was Hindu- many Hindu's view the cow as sacred. The child went home and discussed the experience with her family who were quite upset- they had not consented to a farming experience at the museum. This is an example of the dominant culture not taking into consideration the experiences of other people and of early childhood professionals lacking the skills and dispositions to function well in a diverse classroom setting. The teacher assumed that this would be an appropriate activity for all the children, despite knowing that one of the children was Hindu. This incident diminished equity on many levels by taking a sense of control and cultural pride away from the Hindu family. It also demonstrated to the other children that their culture is dominant and that it is acceptable for people to eat cows. I was saddened for the child in the story that may have been confused or afraid of what she was seeing. I do not know the specifics of the situation, but I equate it to a Catholic seeing Mary in a television sitcom. If I was the parent in this situation, I would be furious. It is easy to see how microaggressions occur in daily life and how they work to segregate society into dominant and non-dominant cultures. I think this situation would not have happened if the teacher had training in anti-bias education and had a basic knowledge of Hindu culture.