Every time I do a workshop on Everyday Antiracism’s inquiry model, people come up with great “gold nugget” ideas helping them handle race issues in their schools. I’d like to share some of those here from time to time, and I invite readers to share their own as well.

In a recent workshop, a school leader mentioned that some stereotypical ideas about “types of kids and families” were floating around her school, and obstructing some aspects of student service. These stereotypes, which are common in American schools, included the following examples:

1. Asians are the successful ones, because their parents care. (This stereotype was normalizing a predominantly Asian-American honor roll in a school that enrolled black and Latino students as well. It was also keeping educators from investigating Asian-American students’ struggles – and getting to know actual Asian-American parents.)

2. Latino families don’t care, so Latino kids don’t succeed. (This stereotype was normalizing the relative absence of Latino students from the honor roll. It was also keeping educators from getting to know actual Latino families and children.)

3. Black kids, particularly boys, are going to be problems. (This stereotype was normalizing educators’ overactive discipline of black students. Black students were also being treated as inherently problematic (and unwelcome) by their non-black peers.)

Finally, all three stereotypes were also keeping educators from analyzing their own interactions with children and families, since each stereotype focused analysis simply on families and students as the “cause” of students’ fates.

The group analyzing this real world example pinpointed the following gold nugget ideas:

PRINCIPLE: If simplistic ideas about “types of families and children” are getting in the way of student service, they must be addressed.

STRATEGY: In conversation with colleagues, try naming the simplistic ideas as simplistic, uninformed ideas about “types of families and children,” and call for more inquiry into the lives of actual families and the experiences of actual children at the school.

TRY TOMORROW: In conversation with colleagues, try writing the actual simplistic ideas on the board. Circle words – “Asian families,” “care,” “are problems,” for example – and ask: do we really know the people we are talking about? Do we know our parents’ actual dreams and struggles? How could we find them out? What are we saying out of assumption, rather than actual information? And how are we, as educators, interacting with members of the group we’re describing?

I offered another race talk hint: try naming these struggles with simplistic ideas about “types of families and children” as common in American schools. If you clarify that the struggle to inquire beyond stereotypes is an American struggle, not just particular to your school, this tends to helps people be less defensive. They will feel more like they are struggling with some shared stuff, rather than “bad people.”

Other hints: read the book Funds of Knowledge by Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti. This offers tips for actually getting to know families. Also read Vivian Louie’s essay in Everyday Antiracism, which talks about getting to know actual families rather than resting satisfied with common stereotypes about types of families. Basically, more inquiry is always the answer.