"It's okay"

One Thursday in February, Kanyon brought this paper home in his weekend school folder:

 

"It's okay for white people to like back (black) people.
It's okay to mery (marry) a black persin.
It's okay to mery a black woomin (woman)."

In addition to his teacher, I loved the message that my little 1st grader thought and wrote about. Josh and I figured that he must have had a lesson about Black History Month, so we asked him how he knew it was okay "for white people to like black people". We thought he would say something like "Oh, my teacher told me about it", but instead he said, "You know, because that one time when Kimi brought her boyfriend to our house". Kimi is my good friend that used to babysit the boys when they were younger and she was still in high school. She is in her 20's now and goes to college, but she still stops by and visits us occasionally when she's in town. When she came home to Salmon for Thanksgiving Break, she came over to our house and brought along her boyfriend Preh. They are a cute couple, and we all liked meeting him. We enjoyed their company and had a good time hanging out with them on Thanksgiving night.

I was amazed that Kanyon remembered the visit from 4 months ago and linked that to his school report. Josh and I were even more amazed that Kanyon accepted the concept that interracial relationships are acceptable, because we've never taught him about this. Josh and I both feel that love is universal, despite what it looks like: despite gender, or color, or nationality, or age, or religion. We didn't talk to the boys about Kimi's boyfriend being a different skin color. In fact, we've never even mentioned Preh's skin color--because to us, it doesn't matter. 

After hearing his answer, it piqued my curiosity, and I asked his teacher if she had taught the 1st graders a lesson on interracial relationships in honor of Black History Month or something. She said she hadn't. She had read the book called "It's Okay to be Different" to the students, which teaches that people have a variety of differences, and it's okay for everyone to be themselves and accept others for who they are.

Then she asked all the children to write a paper on what they learned. She said only 3 students in the class wrote about a deeper concept of acceptance, and Kanyon was one of them. I was so proud of the lesson that he understood and wrote about. I want my children to grow up being open-minded and accepting of others, so it truly made my heart happy to know that my 7-year-old is open-minded and open-hearted. I'm so glad that at such a young age, he already understands that it's okay to "mery" a person who may look different or have a different skin color.