You Can’t Celebrate That! – Navigating the Deep Waters of Social Justice Teaching by Nadia Jaboneta
Reviewed by Susan Ramsay
We’re never ready for it, when it comes. As educators we might have taken workshops, read case studies, practiced what we could say. But when it happens – the moment that calls us to integrate what we know and care about – we’re caught off guard, left blinking, grasping for a response.
These words from Ann Pelo and Margie Carter introducing Nadia Jaboneta’s book “You Can’t Celebrate That!” resonate with my own experiences as an educator in early learning programs. I feel caught off-guard when very young children experiment with ideas and language that convey racism, sexism, and even ageism. Knowing how to wisely respond in that moment feels as elusive to me as capturing a cloud in my palm.
In her book You Can’t Celebrate That! Nadia Jaboneta, an experienced program coordinator and classroom teacher at Pacific Primary preschool in San Francisco, California, shares these very same feelings when, over a lunch time meal, a child’s excitement about plans to celebrate a Jewish holiday is shot down by another children who proclaims, “You can’t celebrate that! Only people with white skin can celebrate that! That’s what my Dad said.”
In this book we take a journey with Nadia as she navigates her feelings, her values, her beliefs, and her relationships with children, families and colleagues. Her story opens our eyes to how we can and must find the words that enable children to respectfully question and explore alternative understandings about others who have skin colours, religions or cultures that are different from our own.
Nadia knows from research, as well as from her own experience as a daughter of immigrant parents from Peru, that not talking about race when children are young reinforces racism and perpetuates an assumption of white superiority in society. And so, Nadia finds these words to respond to the children mired in this uncomfortable conversation at the lunch table:
“At our school, you can celebrate whatever you want to celebrate, no matter what your hair looks like, how tall or short you are, or what your color skin.” (Nadia Jaboneta, You Can’t Celebrate That! page 26)
But Nadia knows that a singular declaration is not enough. What could/should she do to help these children understand one another? What steps could she take that would widen their thinking? How could inclusion, belonging, curiosity, and appreciation of differences among the children, families and staff in her program be nurtured?
This short, relatable, and wise book is a valuable read for early learning and care educators. We don’t have to wait for an unpredictable, uncomfortable moment to arise. We can find inspiration in Nadia Jabonita’s story to develop the tools, strategies, and sensibilities we long to grow within ourselves to create greater social justice in our programs and in our world.