“It’s never too late to go back and pick up what’s left behind.” (Sankofa)
Black consciousness is not born ready. It must be cultivated with care, just like a seed that, when it finds fertile soil, needs the action of human hands, water, wind, and sun to grow and flourish. At be.Living, this planting is carried out with love and responsibility from the first years of life. We understand that transforming a society marked by structural racism requires more than isolated gestures. It takes a daily commitment to a critical eye and to the celebration of the history and culture of the black people, who have shaped Brazil and the world so much through their art, science, and wisdom.
In Early Childhood Education at be.Living, ethnic-racial education is addressed in a sensitive manner and integrated into the children’s routine. Every day they are invited to expand their repertoire, to experience and value diversity through multiple experiences and pedagogical practices.
The pedagogical coordinator of Early Childhood Education, Camila Maia, explains that the objective is not only to address diversity, but to present it as a natural part of learning. “We approach this education as a form of literacy, presenting the diversity of the world in a playful manner, just as we do with other concepts, such as letters and numbers.”
Literature, music, and games are some of the main tools used to build these experiences. Books such as “Just Ask” by Sonia Sotomayor, for example, feature diverse characters, including black children, while songs and games are linked to specific cultural contexts, such as African origins. “When we show where these games or songs that children like come from, we broaden their view of the world, always in a natural and respectful way,” explains Camila.
The Red group, with five-year-old children, the work advances to slightly deeper reflections. In artistic activities, children mix paints to achieve different skin tones, which creates opportunities for dialogues about diversity. “These moments allow children to observe the skin tones of the people around them and reflect on the differences. It is a way of looking at the history and origin of families,” he comments.
With groups like Green, which brings together three-year-old children, the focus is on playfulness and human contact. An example of work experienced by this group is the project “All About be.Living”, in which the children interviewed members of the school community to discover their interests, skills, and favorite games. The group was able to get to know the cleaning, administrative, management, and kitchen teams more closely to investigate what these people played with when they were children. “By conducting this research with diverse people from the school community, beyond their families, the children were able to come into contact with various games from different places in Brazil and around the world. This is a way to broaden the discussion with children about who the people are that make up our community. We want them to realize that these people are not the roles they occupy, but that they are individuals who produce culture and knowledge. In addition, these moments help to create genuine connections,” says Camila.
Another central point in the school’s approach is the choice of references that represent diversity. “We seek to include black artists in art projects and highlight black people occupying different roles in society. We want children to understand that these people have multiple abilities and occupy different spaces,” says the coordinator.
The school also believes that change begins internally, both in the training of the pedagogical team and in the constant review of the curriculum, to eliminate racist practices and discourse. Since 2019, be.Living has been offering regular training sessions with experts so that teachers and staff can understand and implement ethnic-racial education consistently. This training project is concerned with promoting a space for dialogue within be.Living, as well as providing educators with the opportunity to meet with professionals who are contemporary references and are conducting research on ethnic-racial issues in both formal and non-formal education spaces. The training also brings a repertoire of Afro-Brazilian, indigenous, and Latin American literary and academic productions. This collective construction has already brought significant results, cultivating in its students a new conception of human relations based on respect, diversity, and social responsibility.
“Studying this issue is urgent, so that everyone becomes historically aware of how we got here and the importance of education to change the course of this path,” reflects Camila. The Early Childhood Education teachers of be.Living participated in these trainings, which included meetings with specialists, such as the historian and educator Rafael Domingos Oliveira, the art educator and artist Juliana do Santos, and Mafuane Oliveira, the art educator, researcher, and storyteller.
For Camila, the school plays an essential role in the reconstruction of a more inclusive history. “We, together with families and society as a whole, have this fundamental role of repairing history, presenting children with a new perspective.” Here in Early Childhood Education, we show all the roles that these people occupy, we provide opportunities for contact with knowledge about the history and reality of African countries, in a contextualized way for different age groups, and we expand children’s vision of the world,” he concludes. These practices, integrated into the daily lives of children, promote a rich and meaningful experience, forming conscious and open citizens for a future of social and racial equality, and celebration of the wealth of all peoples.
