Diversity Day 2009: The Roma People from Gradinita Rasarit on Vimeo.
Celebrating “Unity in Diversity” is a key concept of Neo-Humanist Education. This year, in Gradinita Rasarit (Bucharest, Romania) we selected the Roma people, one of the most significant minorities in Romania as our curriculum theme. Racism and prejudices are already getting programmed into the impressionable minds of children at the earliest ages – already at 3 years old they have absorbed stereotypes in an even more black and white way than the adults around them as they are still in a developmental stage of classification. But – the beauty of it is that it is very much on the surface of their minds, unguarded – all information is still up for evaluation and adaptation and change – they are not yet calcified into deep beliefs as they will be after a few more years – and then they descend to the subconscious and form a person’s basic outlook on life and become more difficult to access and change.
However, with little ones- if they get exposed to ideas that challenge the stereotypes and distorted information they are getting – it can help to not let racist ideas get absorbed – at least not in the same way as in someone who has never been exposed to more correct information about human beings.