Mixed emotions
In the past month young children have been confronted with issues that even adults cannot handle comfortably, writes Judith Napier Children at the Westminster Children's Society nurseries in London are a rich mixture of faiths and nationalities. After the terrorist attack in New York last month, says operations manager June O'Sullivan, 'we had the whole range of reactions, from gung-ho - "hey, did you see that man jumping from the building" -to saying their mum was upset, to just lots of little innocent faces'.
Children at the Westminster Children's Society nurseries in London are a rich mixture of faiths and nationalities. After the terrorist attack in New York last month, says operations manager June O'Sullivan, 'we had the whole range of reactions, from gung-ho - "hey, did you see that man jumping from the building" -to saying their mum was upset, to just lots of little innocent faces'.
From her experiences in a multi-racial school, early years specialist Anne O'Connor gauges the likely effect of such world-shaking events. She says, 'I think that even in the most racially tolerant schools this will just revive difficulties. Maybe people who had learned to deal with racist feelings, or at least knew that school wasn't the place to voice them, now may feel justified in being as angry as they like about anybody who does not fit into their idea of normality.'
Senior Muslim leaders across the UK have repudiated terrorist acts as un-Islamic, to be condemned by all communities. The Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia reminded all directors of education of their responsibility to ensure a climate as open and free of hate as possible. The commission's Kaushika Amin says, 'It is unreasonable to stereotype all Muslims or Muslim communities in the UK as supporting the attacks in America, or to stereotype Islam as a violent religion. This is a tragic event, and indeed a group of British Muslims was among those who died, so they are victims in that sense as well.'
She is encouraged by positive leads from the Government and the press, which she believes have created a positive climate in which to promote legislation outlawing hate against faith groups. 'We are aware of attacks on individuals and on mosques, of hijabs being torn off, and there is a lot of work still to be done. But mainly it is about explaining what it means to be Muslim, what are the tenets of Islam. There is still a lack of understanding from the very people who do the talking,' she says.
That lack of understanding has manifested itself in attacks on some early years settings, among them Manor Park Montessori Nursery in Kingston, Surrey, where 23 of the 25 children are Muslim. Since the events in America, there has been repeated damage to the property, including graffiti defacing and one incident where the fire exit was barricaded. Two parents have withdrawn their children and the nursery owner decided to temporarily close the nursery.
Around Britain there are real fears of further terrorist attacks, which is a particular issue at an Isle of Dogs school close by Canary Wharf, the highest building in London. Staff at Harbinger Primary School, where a majority of pupils are Bangladeshi, alongside white, Afro-Carribean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Serbo-Croat children, have been working on the issue with all age groups.
'There has been masses of response in and out of school,' says head teacher Mandy Boutwood. 'On the streets, there is some "bin Laden" chanting by young men, although whether they know why is another matter. Some children ask if there will be a war.
'I have asked staff to be very, very careful not to make assumptions, not to put forward their thoughts, but just to say that in school we do not support any violence of any kind.'
Harbinger early years teacher Jackie Flatman says the youngest children have expressed themselves through drawings and talking. 'One particular child said her pictures were of people in America and they were sad, and she talked about naughty men who had done the bombing. Another child made a junk-model bomb.'
She reports that when the news came out about the attacks in New York, children believed Canary Wharf itself had been struck, and needed reassurance and explanation. However, those from fundamentalist Bengali homes, almost certainly without TVs, have simply not mentioned it.
Also sensitive to different ethnic perspectives are the staff at Sighthill Nursery in Glasgow. The area gained unwelcome national prominence this summer when the decision to house asylum seekers there led to violence culminating in a murder that was said to be racially motivated. As well as asylum seekers and the local white population, there are Afghan and Kosovan families, and the families of overseas students.
The Sighthill staff say there has been no mention of the New York tragedy among their 160 three-to five-year-olds. But the children have witnessed the aftermath of violence and unrest on the estate.
'There are a lot of things going on outside the nursery,' says head teacher Mary Garry. 'We have had incidents outside that have impinged on the nursery. A pregnant lady walking to nursery had stones thrown at her, and we had to call the police. Over the summer, one of our Kosovan children died. It is hard emotionally on the staff. But we always try to have a smiling face every morning.
'If something happens, we deal with it and try to give support to the family, maybe counselling, or handing out race equality leaflets. But as far as the children are concerned, they are looking for their wee friends in the morning, and really the racist thing doesn't come into it.' Back at the Westminster Children's Society, multiculturalism is so well established that, says June O'Sullivan, 'it goes without saying that parents will bring in, say, basmati rice, Arabic sweet boxes, Russian newspapers'. The Arabic children include North African Muslims, Egyptians, Iranians - 'all very, very different backgrounds, some not necessarily Muslim'. She has reminded staff to stay as even-handed as possible and to see everything from all perspectives. They have been advised to role-play and practise appropriate, reasoned responses.
'We have a Muslim parent who was spat on, and another who is afraid to step out the door. And we have other parents making rather veiled unpleasant comments, as though what happened on September 11 made it all right to express discriminatory views,' she says.
Even nurseries that do not face racial tension on their own doorsteps are now confronting the issue. At Aberdeen University's Rocking Horse Nursery, children took part in the three-minute silence for the victims of the terrorist attacks in America, and talked about it afterwards. Nursery manager Wilma Cumming said that, for many children, the television coverage of the attacks may only have had the impact of an action video. 'They see things like the Power Rangers zapping and setting things on fire, and there's even fire in 'Bambi', so children do see scary things. But I wonder, since so few nowadays have coal fires at home, if they even know about the danger and destruction fire causes.'
Many early years specialists have been dealing with the personal issues sparked by the terrorist attacks long before September. Babette Brown, a trainer in anti-discriminatory practices who works with persona dolls, designed to help children explore problems such as racism, says nurseries should encourage children to talk about their own identity and develop self-esteem. Jane Lane of the Early Years Trainers Anti-Racist Network agrees that it is up to staff to broach sensitive subjects. She says, 'The issue of Muslims needs to be defused. The message has to be put across that there are people of nearly all religions capable of doing hurtful things.' Research by the charity Save the Children suggests that children in war zones suffer less from trauma if they have access to good childcare. 'That means giving children a secure environment and encouragement to play and express feelings, fears, thoughts and ideas in a supported way, so that whatever they express is accepted and they are able to then move on,' says Lina Fajerman of Save the Children's London development team. 'It is up to adults to contain those anxieties by reassuring them.'
The importance of childcare among the adult tensions is borne out by the nursery at Sighthill. While the signs of race hate come to the surface, the nursery, and all it stands for, holds a special, protected place within the divided community.
Mary Garry says, 'We have a lovely garden here which has never been vandalised once. The building itself was once broken into, but a local said to me, "Och hen, that'll never happen again!" And it never has.'
