Children at the Westminster Children's Society nurseries in London are a rich mixture of faiths and nationalities. After the terrorist attack in New York last month, says operations manager June O'Sullivan, 'we had the whole range of reactions, from gung-ho - "hey, did you see that man jumping from the building" -to saying their mum was upset, to just lots of little innocent faces'.
From her experiences in a multi-racial school, early years specialist Anne O'Connor gauges the likely effect of such world-shaking events. She says, 'I think that even in the most racially tolerant schools this will just revive difficulties. Maybe people who had learned to deal with racist feelings, or at least knew that school wasn't the place to voice them, now may feel justified in being as angry as they like about anybody who does not fit into their idea of normality.'
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