美国国家公共电台 NPR The Things Parents Don't Talk About With Their Kids ... But Should

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

How do you talk to your kids about race, about ethnicity, gender¹, religion or class? Those conversations can be hard. For the past year, NPR and the team behind "Sesame Street" have been collaborating² on a podcast for parents. It's part of NPR's Life Kit³. And today Sesame Workshop is releasing the results of a new survey of parents about how they talk about social identity. Here's NPR's Cory Turner.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE⁴: The short answer is, a majority of parents hardly ever talk about social identity with their kids, according to this nationally representative survey of some 6,000 parents done in collaboration⁵ with NORC at the University of Chicago. And the folks at Sesame Workshop say that's a problem because children do notice differences, and they ask about them.

TANYA HAIDER: Why is this person darker than me? Why is this person wearing that hat on their head?

TURNER: Tanya Haider is executive vice⁶ president for research at Sesame Workshop, and she says parents too often respond to these questions with embarrassment⁷ and a shush.

HAIDER: We sometimes are scared to talk about these things. If the adults stiffen⁸ up and say, oh, you shouldn't say that loudly, that's sending them a cue that there's something wrong. And there's nothing wrong.

TURNER: The vast majority of parents surveyed said they do feel comfortable talking about social identity; they just don't do it. That doesn't surprise Beverly Daniel Tatum. She's a psychologist and author of the classic, "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?".

BEVERLY DANIEL TATUM: My guess is that some parents, certain majority parents, might think, what's to talk about? (Laughter) You know, maybe there's a sense of, it doesn't really need to be talked about.

TURNER: With many communities still segregated⁹ in so many ways, parents often see only families that share their social categories. There is another explanation, though. According to the survey, when parents do talk about social identity, they often wait till their kids are 10, 11, 12 years old. Jennifer Kotler Clarke, who oversaw¹⁰ the Sesame survey, says parents seem to think younger kids don't notice these differences.

JENNIFER KOTLER CLARKE: There's all sorts of research that suggests that children very early on notice definitely physical differences, and there's discrimination very early on.

TURNER: How early do kids notice differences? Try 6 months old. That's why Kotler Clarke says grown-ups need to be proactive. Kids need help making sense of the differences they see, and if they don't get it from parents...

KOTLER CLARKE: They may come up with all sorts of weird¹¹ and strange reasons that people are somewhat different.

TURNER: Exhibit A - Beverly Daniel Tatum still remembers the day her 3-year-old son was told by a white preschool classmate...

TATUM: Your skin is brown because you drink chocolate milk. And then my son came home and asked me if that was true.

TURNER: And this highlights a big warning sign in Sesame's new survey - many of the parents who are talking about race, ethnicity, gender, class or religion with their kids are doing so because they feel they have to, because their kids are hearing negative comments about their own identities. And that, says Sesame's Tanya Haider, is a problem.

HAIDER: It's not the role or responsibility of a group of parents to be having those conversations; it really is the responsibility of everyone.

TURNER: Conversation is key, Sesame says, to building your child's own positive sense of identity, along with a healthy respect for everyone else's.

Cory Turner, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF DORENA'S "A LATE FAREWELL")

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

3 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

8 stiffen   

v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬

参考例句：

• The blood supply to the skin is reduced when muscles stiffen.当肌肉变得僵硬时，皮肤的供血量就减少了。
• I was breathing hard,and my legs were beginning to stiffen.这时我却气吁喘喘地开始感到脚有点僵硬。

9 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

10 oversaw   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去式 )

参考例句：

• He will go down as the president who oversaw two historic transitions. 他将作为见证了巴西两次历史性转变的总统，安然引退。 来自互联网
• Dixon oversaw the project as creative director of Design Research Studio. 狄克逊监督项目的创意总监设计研究工作室。 来自互联网

11 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。