Lately, I have been thinking a lot about color-blind ideology and how it affects our school systems. It is interesting to think about the fact that some educators endorse this color-blind ideology and can not see the potential negative effects it has on children. When I think back to my experience as a child, I try to remember how my elementary schools teachers approached students of color. Unfortunately, it is not something that I can remember very clearly. Which then makes me wonder if I cannot remember it because they used this color-blind approach.
Whenever I think about color blindness in schools, I think about the study discussed in class, which said that children with a teacher who endorsed color blindness were less likely to understand when these biases are occurring. To me, this is almost disturbing. Children should be being educated to accept people for who they are despite race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. It is unrealistic to think that we can educate children to not notice race, especially when they grow up and issues of race are thrown at them.
Something that is interesting to think about when it comes to children and color blindness, is what if a child has been raised to acknowledge race and then they are put into a classroom with a teacher who does not acknowledge race. How does a child react to this type of situation? Do you think this could be confusing to a child in understanding right vs wrong?