Opinion: Thinking for ourselves

I feel considerable sympathy for Jane Lane, whose important new book Young Children and Racial Justice has been ferociously attacked by the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph.

A discussion in the book about young children's reactions to difference has been taken completely out of context to suggest that if a three-year-old says 'yuk' in response to a spicy snack, he will be reprimanded for racism and reported to the local authority. This debate has quickly moved on from bhajis to an over-heated discussion on the web resulting in the book's publisher, the National Children's Bureau, receiving more than 50 abusive letters and emails.

The book seems to have provoked a fear that the thought police are after our babies and toddlers, with the Sunday Telegraph claiming the book argues 'even babies cannot be ignored in the drive to root out prejudice'. This is a line of argument that treats all of us who work in the early years as if we are stupid and helpless.

Jane Lane's book is exciting, provocative and argumentative. It engages with its readers as people with minds of their own. It does not claim to be an instruction manual for staff to follow. Nor does it advocate what the Mail on Sunday calls the 'regulation of private speech and thought'. But it does say that children continue to suffer in British society because of racist attitudes, and that everyone who works with children needs to reflect on this and consider what needs to be done about it. The implication in the media that people who work with young children are simply putty in the hands of Ms Lane does a disservice both to her, and to us.

Having said that, I think we ought to notice times when problems that belong to the adult world are introduced to children who lack the level of development to understand them or the agency to deal with them. The serious issues around racism are connected to housing, policing, international trade policy and employment practices. By focusing on interactions between young children we can mislead ourselves.

We shouldn't be surprised children have exactly the same difficulties with differences between people, with cruelty and selfishness, that we all have. As adults we need to make sure we do not dump our own moral uncertainties on the nursery.

Julian Grenier is head of Kate Greenaway Nursery School and Children's Centre, London.