Welcome back to another installment of Born On Third, this week on the show I am joined by Co-founder of Kind Cotton - Kaitlin Johnstone. During her days as an educator Kaitlin noticed a lot of underrepresentation in the books she was teaching. The demographic in her classroom did not reflect the characters in the books being used, so together with her husband she sought to change that. Fast forward to 2022 Kind Cotton has donated over 52,000 books with their goal only growing and their reach expanding!

Key Takeaways:

Even in school districts with a high demographic of black and Hispanic students, the curriculum was not representative of them or their culture

The impact education has on early childhood developments makes a huge a difference in your educational journey; from traditional knowledge to social sills

Hate is taught – it is paramount to actively teach children to be anti-racist otherwise at an early age they begin to associate with other kids who look like them

Episode Highlights:

[00:51] Introduction to Kaitlin

[03:47] What base were you born on?

[08:11] Starting Kind Cotton

[11:42] Kids starting at home base

[17:55] Guidelines and themes of books donated

[21:15] Legislation in Florida

[26:00] Going against the grain

[35:11] Responsibility of change falls on white people

[37:39] Purchasing Kind Cotton books

[42:27] Recommended books

[45:20] Starting a reading program

[48:31] How can people support Kind Cotton?

[54:38] What base do you think you are on now?

[56:33] Outr0

Quotes:

“It’s hard for people to step back and outside of themselves”

“My third year into teaching I started recognizing that a lot of children didn’t have access to books – they especially didn’t have access to books in which they felt seen, valued and loved”

“Teachers make more decisions than brain surgeons on a daily basis which is why there’s so much tremendous mental burnout in education”

“We want children to feel seen regardless of where they come from, what their culture is, or what their parent’s sexual orientation is”

“Books should be windows and mirrors”

Learn more about Kind Cotton here

Follow Kaitlin on IG at @kindcotton