January

Milo Imagines the World

Milo looks around at the people on his bus and draws pictures about the lives he imagines they have. Use this text to explore stereotypes and bias. How do visible characteristics incorrectly inform our biases and create barriers for relationship building? How do our similarities and differences impact the relationships we have with people inside and outside our own identity groups? How do race, class, and gender stereotypes influence Milo's drawings?

From the Publisher: Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. There's the whiskered man with the crossword puzzle; Milo imagines him playing solitaire in a cluttered apartment full of pets. There's the wedding-dressed woman with a little dog peeking out of her handbag; Milo imagines her in a grand cathedral ceremony. And then there's the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers; Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo--walking the same path, going to the exact same place--Milo realizes that you can't really know anyone just by looking at them.

Questions for families to discuss:

What are some assumptions people have made about you? How did that make you feel?
Do you ever imagine stories about other people? What do you think the author is trying to tell us about imagining stories about people?
Talk about the meaning of the words "bias" and "stereotypes" and how they sometimes cause us to imagine things about people that may not be true.
Why do you think the author and illustrator wrote this book? (To remind us to not make assumptions about people's lives....to help us build empathy for someone else's experience that we we not know a lot about...etc).
Being a child of an incarcerated parent is a piece of Milo but it doesn't define who he is. All of us are made up of many different characteristics that make us unique. What are some other identity characteristics about Milo? (He's a brother, he's imaginative, he's an artist...).

Learning Goals:

For the Month of January, we are focusing on challenging bias and stereotyping.

Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society. (Identity 1)
Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people. (Identity 4)
Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded way. (Diversity 8)
Students will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection. (Diversity 9)

Go here to learn more about the Learning Goals, The Social Justice Standards

Listen to the story

Learn more about the Author

More resources for families:

The book is available to purchase here.
Resource for Adult learning: https://hbr.org/2020/10/whats-wrong-with-asking-where-are-you-from

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