It is difficult to protect our children from these messages because so many people influence our children's language development, moral development, and social development. Powerful influences include relatives, schools, child care settings, clubs, church, books, videos, and television. Louise Derman-Sparks offers excellent questions for parents, teachers, and child care providers to ask themselves when they are examining the messages their children may be receiving. The following questions can be used to analyze messages that we send and those our children receive from television and in videos, children's stories, and visuals in homes and child care settings. The first step to sensitizing parents and teachers to these issues is exposing them to these concerns.
Understanding is a completely different issue.
Individuals and families can begin to evaluate messages for themselves as they're exposed to them in books, magazines, videos, television, and even in songs. Sensitivity and awareness can begin in our homes and schools and spread out into the larger community. Together, we can move toward more representative and realistic portrayals in all settings. Maybe it could go something like this. Boots and gloves and water hose.