Laleña Garcia
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Laleña Garcia is a kindergarten teacher living in Brooklyn and she’s taught in NYC since 2000. Laleña also works for the New York State Early Childhood Professional Development Institute as a Gender and Sexuality Trainer (which means she teaches Queer Theory), helping early childhood professionals and families to create expansive and supportive understandings of gender, sexuality, relationships, and family structure.
As a member of the NYC Black Lives Matter at School steering committee since 2018, Laleña also provides professional development for schools and other institutions seeking to deepen their anti racist work. Her online course for adults, Rooted, offers contextual background and concrete strategies for anti bias work in early childhood and elementary settings.
Laleña’s first children’s book, What We Believe was published by Lee and Low in 2020. The companion hardcover, How We Can Live, was released to starred reviews in October of 2022.
When she’s not giving young children the tools they need to resolve conflicts and smash binaries (Laleña wants to abolish the Gender Binary), she enjoys reading, surfing, and zooming around Brooklyn on her beloved bicycle (always wearing a helmet!).
EDUCATION
- MS in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education
- BA in History from Yale University
Below is a short introductory video where Laleña talks about BLM at Schools and the many socialist concepts (or 13 Guiding Principles) related to Equity. She describes how she teaches these Radical Marxist concepts to school children as young as Kindergarten.
Investigative Journalism
- TO BE DETERMINED
Online Posts
- TO BE DETERMINED
Social Media
- Website: https://www.rootedkids.org/
- X/Twitter: @RootedKids
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lalena.garcia
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blm_in_kindergarten
Laleña’s Instagram
Here is a sample of some of Laleña’s Instagram posts to get a sense of what radical/socialist ideologies she is pushing:
Laleña’s Website
Here is a sample of some webpages on Laleña’s personal training site to get a sense of what radical/socialist ideologies she is pushing:
Here are some of the blog posts Laleña wrote on her website related to Gender (where she explains that it doesn’t adhere to the binary, Male/Female) and Revolutionary Queer Chosen Families (to attack and reject the “normal” nuclear family, in favor of the collective family where we will all equitably take care of each other). This will “liberate” (or free) children from being the private property of their parents.
- Attacking the Gender Binary
- Attacking the Nuclear Family
Events/Conferences Presented At or Attended
- TO BE DETERMINED
Relevant Publishers / Books / Periodicals
PUBLISHERS
- Lee & Low Books – Laleña is the author of 2 books
BOOKS
There is a TEACHER’S GUIDE – https://www.leeandlow.com/uploads/loaded_document/879/WhatWeBelieve_ActivityGuide_v1.pdf
This is a comprehensive guide that Laleña created to go with the kids book What We Believe (teachers use the guide to assist in their lesson planning when teaching school children about each of the 13 Guiding Principles in the book)
These are some socialists/activists/other individuals who gave praise for the What We Believe (written on the back cover) and they are listed below:
- Bettina Love
- Dr. Kim Parker
- Thomas Nikundiwe
- Carla Shalaby
- Jesse Hagopian
Laleña was also mentioned on the website for First Conversations (which is a board book series developed by experts in the fields of early childhood geared towards activism against injustice)
The above screenshot was found on the FAQ webpage for First Conversations – https://www.firstconversations.com/faq – Laleña is giving advice to school educators across the country who will teach young children Equity/Marxism (equal outcomes) at their schools. She also points to resources for school librarians to utilize if they encounter pushback from patrons.
PERIODICALS AND PUBLICATIONS
Associations to Organizing / Collective Groups
- Black Lives Matter At School – Committee Member, BLM at School NYC, NY (Since 2018)
Associations to Businesses / Organizations
- New York State Early Childhood Professional Development Institute – Laleña works as a Trainer for Gender, Sexuality and the Family in Early Childhood
- Trans formative Schools (Nonprofit) – Director of Community Liberation
Relationships to Colleges / Universities / K-12 Schools
- Brooklyn Friends School – Lower School Head Teacher
- Manhattan Country School – Former Kindergarten Teacher