Annie Garrett, PEPS Contributor (Estimated reading time: 5 minutes)
Many of us will be parents for thousands of days. While this may seem daunting during the intense early years of parenting, it can also be liberating. Parenting is iterative. We can get better at it, particularly when we have meaningful social support aiding us. With that support in place, parenting can be an opportunity to rethink and undo unhelpful (and harmful) generational patterns and practices for the betterment of our ourselves, our families, and our communities. If you’re reading this, then you probably know that PEPS Groups can be a powerful force for generational change, and it all starts with our curriculum.
The PEPS curriculum guides culture and practice within groups and the organization, making it essential to keep it updated and relevant. I recently sat down with Jennie Capron, Leader Training & Support Manager at PEPS, who shared an overview of how PEPS approaches curriculum revision, and consultant Adana Protonentis, who walked me through the recent work she did to update the curriculum using an anti-ableism lens.
“There are a million different ways to be a parent,” says Capron. “The more inclusive the curriculum, the more likely parents are to open up in groups and share their experiences.” This ethos has driven a series of external curriculum reviews since 2017, starting with an anti-bias review focusing on gender, followed by reviews addressing racial and cultural bias, and more recently, ableism.
“We want to ensure we aren’t doing further damage or making any family feel less valued,” Capron emphasizes. This has meant everything from shifting language (i.e., replacing “moms and dads” with “parents”) to rethinking assumptions embedded in the curriculum. For example, early reviews uncovered bias in discussions about parenting practices that presumed everyone had safe and happy childhoods—a reality far from universal.
The reviews have been conducted by external consultants who have both professional and lived experience in the topics they cover. Capron says that the results have been encouraging. “We’re seeing fewer comments about problematic phrasing and more feedback about how included and comfortable participants feel.” While anecdotal for now, these shifts suggest that PEPS is on the right track. “It’s hard to disaggregate the impact of the curriculum updates from other equity initiatives, like geographic expansion and flexible pricing, but we know they’re all part of creating a more welcoming space.”
Adana Protonentis, a community educator and consultant specializing in racial and disability justice, recently reviewed the PEPS curriculum through the lens of disability justice. “I started by reading the entire curriculum to understand its structure and flow, and then did multiple reviews with different lenses, looking for opportunities to incorporate disability-affirming language and practices.” Protonentis teaches on the topic at Seattle University, but her work goes beyond academia. Drawing on her lived experience as a parent, a person of color, and a person with a disability, she asked critical questions: “What would be affirming for me to hear? Where is that absent, and where should it be included?”.
Protonentis shared a related anecdote: “I recall taking a class for parents of kids with mental health disorders. It was clear that the curriculum assumed that all of the parents in attendance would be white, non-disabled, neurotypical, and speak English as a first language. But how common is that, really?”
Her review was guided by the Ten Principles of Disability Justice, a framework that prioritizes intersectionality and the leadership of those most impacted. “Nothing about us without us,” she says, referencing a key disability justice concept. By involving parents with lived experiences of disability, PEPS is not just rewriting its curriculum but reshaping how we think about parenting support altogether. “Many parents never got to be in communities that were inclusive,” she notes. “It’s not that people want to be exclusive or ableist, but they haven’t had the opportunity to learn.”
By addressing these gaps, the updated curriculum aims to normalize disability as part of the human experience. Protonentis points out, “Disability is becoming more common, yet we live in a society deeply segregated by disability; kids with disabilities are often put in separate, self-contained classrooms and their parents have to advocate hard for them to be placed in general education classrooms with their nondisabled peers. Folks don’t often think of the word “segregation” in a context outside of race, but that’s exactly what this is: separating people based on identity.” Says Protonentis, “Practically speaking, there are things we can do to make a PEPS meeting or a playdate more accessible. That is curriculum, too.”
Both Capron and Protonentis are quick to point out that PEPS will never be finished with curriculum review. It is an iterative, ongoing process. “When you know better, you do better” goes the Maya Angelou quote. For me, and I think for many parents, knowing better is the easy part. (I’m sure I’m not the only parent out there with a social media feed that is like a fire hydrant of parenting advice). The hard part is doing better. When you are in community with others who also know better, and also want to do better, it becomes much easier, and more enjoyable, too. As PEPS now has groups for infancy through adolescence, and a demonstrated commitment to creating expansive, inclusive curricula, parents have more opportunities to gain knowledge, support and accountability through the PEPS experience.
About the Author
Annie Garrett is a Manager and Part Time Faculty in the Early Childhood Education program at North Seattle College. She began her PEPS journey as a parent in 2017, became a Group Leader in 2018, and a PEPS Ambassador in 2022. Connect with Annie via her author site where you can also read more of her work on parenting, advocating, and lifeing.