Teacher teaching my DC6 about apartheid - AIBU

[Stargazingmummy]

So my recently turned 6 year old told me that his teacher told him white people and black people were treated differently in Africa and that white people were treated better.
It's important my son learns about the world but at an appropriate age. My son has never identified people by colour and now suddenly he is aware of people's skin colour.
I am furious!!! And will be speaking to the headteacher Monday.
AIBU?

At some stage he was going to become aware, better to do it in a teacher controlled way IMO.

It doesn’t sound like the teacher said anything inappropriate for the age.

It seems like the teacher gave your DC a factual and age appropriate explanation of apartheid to me. I wouldn't be upset by this at all.

He was unaware that people had different skin colours ?

…why do I get the feeling this is (yet another) Sunday wind-up thread

Sounds fine to me. It happened, no need to lie, just keep it age appropriate, which is sounds like it was.

I don't see anything wrong with this at all.
I've had conversations about racism with my 5 year old. Not apartheid admittedly but they need to learn sometime.
As long as it was done in an age appropriate manner I'd be fine with this.

It is annoying when your child learns something a little earlier than you'd choose as their parent.

However, objectively, the teacher has done nothing wrong.

My little sister's year 1 teacher came to my mum moved almost to tears. Show and tell- my sister's 'tell' was that Nelson Mandela had just been freed. The lovely teacher explained to the rest of the class, and asked my sister to write it down for her to keep. Lovely lady.

YABU.

What are you furious about?

has your son never seen a person of colour before?

Is this a joke? Please don’t do that.

I read a children’s book about Rosa Parks to my 5 year old. She said why were those people so mean mummy!

Why shouldn’t children know about this stuff?!

Fuck me, and people wonder why there is a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching. The teacher has done absolutely nothing wrong here and you’ve got nothing to be furious about.

Shock, horror, a teacher is educating your child.

i think not discussing skin colour has been done by you with the best of intentions but the children need to learn about the world we live in.
sometimes at school children younger than your dc can make racist remarks- either unwittingly or which they’ve picked up from home. The fact your child is a certain way, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a reason the teacher is talking about this in class.,

yabvu

Presuming you are in the UK, he’s 6 and a part of the KS1 history curriculum is to be taught about “historic events beyond living memory both
nationally and globally”. KS1 is for 5-7 year old children. What exactly do you think the head is going to do, sack the teacher for doing her job?

Did she, aye?

When is an appropriate time to introduce this conversation to a child? It seems the conversation was factual and age appropriate.

You are frankly being ridiculous and you need to support your child in understanding the struggles of others.

So my recently turned 6 year old told me that his teacher told him white people and black people were treated differently in Africa and that white people were treated better. you dropped the rope there. Of course a 6 year old knows that people have different skin colours.

Stop trying to create drama and parent your child.

Sounds pretty normal to me.
The school I work in compare Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole in Year 2. The then do Rosa Parks a little later in the year.
Black history is studied from quite young - as it should be.

Why was your child unaware people have different skin colours?

I genuinely don't understand why you are upset by this? It sounds like a perfectly reasonable, age appropriate explanation of a historically factual event to me. Same as how they should learn about how women were treated less favourably too.

Have you had his vision checked?

YaBU - you need to get yourself some age appropriate books. Little people big drems etc.

I've been reading these to my children for years. There are some great ones about British black history too

I don't have all the answers and I'm not getting it right by any means but I talk to them about the world / history / white / British wrongdoings etc

When we walked through Atlanta airport this summer there was MLK jnr exhibition and my children were in awe that they were looking at his actual suit / glasses / watch.

Educate your child and don't be surprised when others do

Yes this sounds really odd.