Making learning stick - Pride!

I wrote a blog post about Lunar New Year a few months ago. Contained within it was a core message of ‘working with your culture.’ The thing is, if you have children who celebrate an event it makes it much easier for you to bring it into the setting and for others to learn about it. Where there is a detachment, i.e. no-one with home experiences of it, then it’s a harder sell. But not impossible, we build knowledge from knowing nothing (that’s what exploring does).

Now let’s explore Pride!

I’m writing this in Pride Month 2025 (June in case you don’t know.) As a proud gay man, I can honestly say that Pride is a special time for me. It’s both a celebration and a protest. Celebrating how far we’ve come but protesting unequal treatment for parts of my community in the UK and worldwide. With the far right no longer on the fringes of UK politics, Pride has become a weapon for a vocal minority and their hate has serious consequences. With that in mind I would ask you to read this blog with an open-mind and message me privately if you want any more advice. I’ve turned public comments off for this to protect the queer community from those who want to do us harm.

A cultural connection:

Many children in our settings now come from same sex families with an even greater number having same sex couples in their extended family. Children are learning that love and companionship looks different to many people. For those who have these home experiences they can be bringing those into a setting, talking about them and sharing them with others. There are, of course, some children with no home experience of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s just not something that’s part of their lives. For the most part, those children have simply not encountered seeing a family with two same sex parents or a person who doesn’t conform to gender norms, etc. So, for those children, their home experiences are zero.

Starting from the bottom:

It might be tempting to replicate a whole pride parade when you have children living in same-sex families. For those children, it may make [a little] sense. You may choose to fly a flag – again, some sense. But for those with no experience, the parade is just a walk, and the flag is just a fancy rainbow. So, we should think about starting at the bottom of the knowledge ladder.

·      Ensure you have a range of books that reflect experiences that some children have, and other children can make sense of. Books with same sex families or those with different identities where they are not the main storyline.

·      Include books that reference identity in a simple to understand way, e.g. disabilities, age, ethnicity. It’s not vulgar to pick books that talk about differences – it helps children to understand them.

·      Talk about themselves and what they like, sports, hobbies etc.

·      Talk about flags – flags are used for a lot of reasons including support. Start with flags that might make sense to them such as a national flag, a sports flag, a county flag, jolly roger etc.  

·      Talk about kindness – tolerance and acceptance are built upon taking time to listen to each other and value a person in spite of their differences to you.

What about going deeper?

Depth in Pride is going to be unique to the child as you’re never going to have a whole cohort with a lot of knowledge. Therefore, tune into those children who show interest. Usually, these interests are personal to them, for example family members. Ask questions, give them space and freedom to talk about things and follow those conversations up with enhancements that are suitable for their cognitive age.

 Is this really appropriate for children?

You need to make that decision for yourself, away from the angry internet. We need to be mindful of staff, parents and children in those decisions but judge for yourself whether the knowledge above is in any way inappropriate for children. Remember this isn’t about immersing them in anything too deeply (they haven’t got prior knowledge to understand it!). Treat pride month as any other community-based celebration and dip in and out as you see fit.

I don’t want to be seen as homophobic/bi-phobic, transphobic by choosing to not talk about this.

Choosing whether to teach ANYTHING in your environment is a personal choice. No one from the queer community will judge you for not teaching it. Equally if you have a family from the community, they will equally understand that you may choose to be careful about how you approach it.

Like with all celebrations even a tiny bit of knowledge in the Early Years plants a seed that can grow into adulthood. We’re global citizens and knowing as much about our world around us makes us stronger and better people.

However you’re celebrating (or not at all), Happy June, Happy Pride month and enjoy your day.

James 🖤