“Little Women”: Eradicating the Adultification of Black Girls

Shawnna Miller, Pre-K, Winget Park Elementary

Curriculum Unit (PDF)

Synopsis

This curriculum unit is aimed to inform two sets of people; students and
teachers. It is my goal with this curriculum to chip away at the significant bias that Black girls are unlike their peers of other ethnicities. I intend to do this by exposing students and teachers to literature and activities that show Black girls doing ordinary and extraordinary things. It is also my goal to change the myths of perception. In the Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood study, done by the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law, data showed that adults viewed Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5-14. The results of this study are shown to have far reaching implications that may be a contributing factor in the punitive treatment of Black girls in the education and juvenile justice systems.