“Ohana: Means Family; Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind, or Forgotten”-Lilo & Stitch

Framing the Family Tree: How Teachers Can Be Sensitive to Students’ Family Situations (95)

-Sudie Hofmann

Part of teaching in specific ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ Day activities is embedded through the North American definition of a family; where each child has one mom, one dad, possibly a sibling, and/or a pet.  Hofmann outlines how this is false for many students’ families, and how they feel secluded from the dominant majority of their peers, upon participating in these activities.  Schools need to be “validating all family structures” (97), by presenting diversity and respect, so all students feel accepted with their own unique definition of family.