The founder of a New York City preschool that teaches children about their African heritage is one of five winners of the 2021 David Prize, an annual $1 million award given to select New York City residents. York.
Fela Barclift created “Little Sun People41 years ago after seeking a racially balanced preschool for her one-year-old daughter.
“I’ve been to at least 10 different nurseries and couldn’t find a brown doll, book with black people or brown people. I couldn’t find any poster or photo of someone who looked like him“, recalls Ms. Barclift.
Barclift soon realized that she was going to have to create from scratch the kind of kindergarten she was looking for.
“I’m going to create a place where there will be a school for her, at least until she’s ready for kindergarten, where she can have brown dolls, where she can have storybooks. In fact, I had color in the storybooks. I got a little team of parents together and we just colored in some storybooks and changed the hair.“said the new winner.
Little Sun People started small but has grown over the years. The number of registrations now stands at 60 children, with a waiting list. And her one-year-old daughter is now a school teacher.
“We follow the curriculum and make sure we meet the benchmarks for what our children should have in the future. But on top of that, we’re bringing a lot of history, culture, mannerisms, information, perspectives, thoughts from people who are people of color, you know, into the present and into history.” she added.
“the courage and the vision to change”
The David Prize is looking for residents of the city of New York having “the courage and vision to change” future. Each winner receives $200,000 over two years. The award is named after Brooklyn promoter David Walentas and is funded by his family’s foundation. Barclift was chosen from among 5,000 people nominated.
“The David award is like the first opportunity for us to really be seen, to come out and be encouraged. And so the work we do feels like there’s a greater sense of worth.”
Ms Barclift plans to use the prize money to create a afrocentric teaching guide that she can share with other educators. She hopes that this program can be applied nationwide.
“It takes years to make people understand how to implement such a program, but you have to start somewhere“, said Ms. Barclift. She maintains that “if we manage to produce this educational guide in a year, because we have planned a period of one year to do it and publish it, and at the same time we start working on the professional developmentwe can help teachers get to work.” _
According to Ms. Barclift, children acquire the foundations of their lives between birth and the age of five. She believes her program helps give kids of color a sense of pride.
“We’re just connecting with the fact that there’s so much our kids can be proud of, which I think is kind of the ballast and the foundation that helps them stand up against the very systemic racism which they will face if they are of color, unless something changes in the near future“. dit Fela Barclift.
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