Spring has not fully arrived yet, but the hallways at AFS are in full bloom—all the divisions are displaying the creative and immersive work that they’ve been doing inside and outside their classrooms. In one second-grade classroom, teacher Saidah Giraud explored Hair Love. She shared what led to this beautiful project and how her class responded.

Bonita, Director of Communications: What led you to this particular lesson or topic?

Saidah: This discussion came from an extension of our unit about civil rights, on where we discussed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what discrimination means. I also viewed the Dove Crown Campaign 2022 video and it inspired me to want to to celebrate our hair and our skin tones. The whole goal of the lesson was for us to discuss hair discrimination, self-love and acceptance of different types of beauty.

Bonita: What questions and/or insights did students have that made for an interesting discussion?

Saidah: The students thought hair discrimination was something of the past. All of the children had something they enjoyed about their hair. We talked about who has banned hairstyles and defined what was acceptable for school and the workplace in the past.

Bonita: Why is this an especially important study topic for 2nd graders?

Saidah: It is important to teach children as early as possible that they are beautiful inside and out. There is no need to compare yourself to others, nor is it necessary to change who you are to fit into someone else’s definition of beauty.