I remembered one time after my car accident in college, I was at work at the local grocery store, when I heard a child ask her mom what was wrong with my eyes (I took a lot of impact to my face during the accident, and one eye was about completely blood shot and bruised pretty bad and the other was about half blood shot). The mom quickly told the daughter that she shouldn't ask those questions and that they were rude to ask. I wasn't surprised that the child noticed it, because it was something that a lot of people noticed, and it was a question I had been getting a lot since I went back to work. I told the mom that it was okay, and that I knew my eyes looked weird. I remember telling the little girl that I was in an accident and hit my head, but the eyes were getting better everyday. The mom apologize that I had to say it, but like I said, I was use to it by them.
I think the message that the mom communicated to her daughter was that it's not nice to ask what is wrong with people, and that it is rude to say something like that. Even, though the little girl was just being curious, and noticed something different. Instead of the mom reprimanding her, she could have said something along the line of not being sure why my eyes or different, and sometimes people have accidents that hurt themselves.
I think an example an example of how an anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child's understanding is to explain the truth. If the anti-bias educator doesn't know why someone is different, in this case my eyes, then maybe encourage the child to ask the question. Instead of yelling at them for their curiosity, which is very common for young children, give them the chance to ask and find out for themselves, especially if the anti-bias educator is unable to tell the child why.
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