Raising Race Conscious Children (formerly known as How to Raise an Ally: Social Justice at LREI) are open Parents Association diversity meetings that provide all LREI parents with opportunities to dialogue about a range of social justice and identity themes, keeping race and ethnicity as an important aspect of our work as parents.

"THE ONE TRUE DEMOCRACY WE HAVE IS STORYTELLING. IT GOES ACROSS BORDERS, BOUNDARIES, GENDERS, WEALTH, RACE -- EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL."

- Narrative 4 Cofounder & President, Colum McCann

The first of our three part series presents Narrative 4, a framework for engaging in story exchanges that build empathy, defy stereotypes, and develop better understanding about your parent community.

Join us on December 7, 2018, 8:45 in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria for our first LREI open-parent diversity meeting.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO PREPARE FOR THE SESSION?

There is no “right story.”  Your story can be anchored in joy, pain, humor, embarrassment. As long as what you share comes from a place of truth within yourself you will be successful.  What does a story exchange look like?

  • The facilitator helps participants form small groups of 8, identifies the goals for the session, sets norms to ensure safety for all participants, and builds trust through communication.
  • The facilitator then pairs participants in the small groups and gives them time to share their stories. Participants actively listen to their partner's story.
  • After a break, the facilitator brings the small groups together in a circle to hear each participant share their partner’s story in the first person.
  • The facilitator leads a discussion about what it felt like to take on another’s story, and creates a sense of closure.
In the interest of time, limit the story you will share during the session to no longer than 5- 7 minutes. You will tell a parent-partner a true story from your life. The prompts below are meant to encourage parents to consider the ways in which race has impacted their parenting as well as their own life. You will only speak about one of the prompts below. Feel free to jot down some thoughts for yourself prior to the December 7 meeting.

  1. Consider a time when you heard your child (or another child) express a misconception or stereotype about someone of a different racial-ethnic group. What conversation happened with your child and how did this impact you and/or your parenting.
  2. What story can you tell about when you realized how much race matters in the way you parent?
  3. Tell a story about a moment when you in some way confronted (or were confronted with) your racial-ethnic identity. How did or could this impact your parenting.
  4. Tell a story about a memorable racialized event, positive or negative, and how it felt to you and how it impacted your parenting.
  5. What was a moment since you started LREI when your perceptions and/or understanding of race were challenged.
Please view the video on the right to learn more about the Narrative 4 model and read more about the power of Narrative 4 in these articles:

Can a life-swap exercise stop a community tearing itself in two?

When sizeable refugee populations from African and Muslim countries start resettling in communities that look, talk and pray nothing like them, friction and outright racism can follow. Can simple storytelling prevent that fate?

The Tale of Two Schools:

Fieldston and University Heights are in the same borough but worlds apart. How much understanding between their students can a well-told story bring?

An Experiment in Empathy

He auctioned off the pistol that killed Trayvon Martin. She watched her child die in a mass shooting. Can they change each other’s minds about guns?
Little Red School House
and Elisabeth Irwin High School

LREI. Powered By Questions.

List of 1 items.

  • Since 1921