Seeing images of the numerous attacks on Asians and Pacific Islanders is hard to avoid.
For many teachers and parents, the challenge is to take what’s happening and make it something for children to learn from.
Lihn Ho is a third-grade teacher at Shirakawa Elementary School in the diverse Franklin-McKinley School District in San Jose, where more than a third of the students are Asian or Pacific Islander.
Ho conducts discussions about the recent attacks cautiously and carefully making sure students focus on positives.
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“They know it’s not right,” Ho said. “We kind of move forward more like a solution approach. What can we do?”
This week, the district board passed a resolution condemning racist attacks but just as important creating and fortifying curriculum such as ethnic studies.
“Making sure that we talk about and teach our students the histories, so they understand why these things are happening and how we can take a firm stand against racism,” said school board president Maimona Afzal Berta.
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Ngoc Tran, a parent of two students said that she makes sure they don’t generalize like an attacker often does.
“It’s always an individual,” said Tran. “It is always a bad person, doing something bad. They probably didn’t have the right upbringing they had the wrong influences whatever it is, it’s that person not that group."
It is a lesson for everyone of all ages if the kids get it, adults can too.
