Legos as guns. (Photo: Christine Wolf)
Evanston Patch Earlier this month, I received a Facebook message from a concerned Evanston citizen, who told me that the 2-year-old classroom at The Child Care Center of Evanston, 1840 Asbury Ave., has an area devoted to gun play. “A teacher in this classroom reached out to me as another early childhood educator in Evanston, for my opinion. She is appalled, as are most of the staff at the Child Care Center. The Executive Director Lindsay Percival, however, has sanctioned this area in the classroom. This school has a long history with the African American community, Dajae Coleman was a former student. The # of subsidized families here is 70% of the total enrollment. The board is unaware of this and last I heard, parents had not been notified,” this citizen wrote. “I am shocked and saddened that this is happening to a classroom in our community. If my children still attended here, I would be pulling them out immediately.” I contacted executive director Lindsay Percival to get her opinion on the matter. As we played phone tag, I took to Facebook and posted this question: What are your thoughts about having a dedicated gun-play area in a 2-year-old classroom? Click here to read over 40 Facebook replies within a few hours.
It's clearly a complicated issue and I believe we need to make an age-appropriate curriculum a priority for every educational setting to equip teachers and their caregivers meaningful strategies to address guns and violence. When a child points a gun fashioned from a Lego when trying to understand his world, what should a teacher say to the child and to the class? If a shooting hits the news, what are the opportunities for dialog that teachers can raise? Our children are exposed to guns. They are curious. What should we be telling them?
