Pate, a poet, novelist, and creator of the Innocent Classroom, a professional development program for K-12 educators that aims to close the relationship gap between educators and students of color, explains the program and how it uses innocence as a goal for every child to impact their behavior and academic engagement by helping them believe that they can exist outside of negative stereotypes. He contends that American culture robs children of color and other marginalized children of the chance to know and experience innocence, how stereotypes impact children in creating a sense of guilt, and the impact on relationships between teachers and children. He describes how his program creates relationships that reduce or eliminate the guilt that develops from stereotypes and negative narratives and helps children learn effectively. He discusses the dilemma children of color face in terms of guilt and innocence, research on stereotype consciousness and stereotype threat, and how to start building a new educational system; how educators can begin to recognize and measure the innocence deficit of each child and create an authentic relationship with that child by recognizing the good in children and understanding how each child responds to the weight of guilt; valuing progress, time with students, and students’ innocence, and modeling the belief that innocence is a valuable aspect of their personality and behavior in the classroom; prompts and examples for engaging and developing strategic responses to students' good; strategies for nurturing students’ innocence and managing and maintaining the Innocent Classroom program; and helping children guard their reclaimed innocence and understanding of their own good. Annotation ©2020 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com) Read Less