Embracing Diversity

I feel that nature is my greatest teacher and as I was riding through my neighborhood, I asked nature to guide me to a topic for my blog and then I saw these trees. As I rode by on my bike, I couldn't resist snapping some pictures.






I was taken with their beauty and vigor and the fact that two trees so different had grown up so close together, yet they were so healthy and alive.

Of course the pictures, taken by my cellphone, don't really do those beautiful trees justice, but I immediately realized they were a lesson in embracing diversity. They made me think about the ethnic mix of students in my classroom. Students that may appear different on the outside, but on the inside are so alike. Students that have grown up together. As in many schools in TX, the greatest percentage of students are Hispanic, followed by African American and the minority is Caucasian. Of course there are a lot of ethnic rifts at the school and in the classroom. Discrimination against someone else starts at an early age it seems. I remember in my first year of teaching, I had an American History class of about 15. They came in and I let them sit wherever they wanted. After they were seated and roll was taken, I realized that in the front half of the room were all of the Hispanic students and the back half were African American students. They had segregated themselves! I promptly made a seating chart to mix things up. There are so many other stories about kids discriminating against each other...and even against me! In my classroom I had pictures of my dogs hanging up. Whenever a student asked if I had kids, I would show them the pictures of my dogs and say "These are my kids". One day an African American student commented to other students (after my comment) "Yeah they think their animals are their kids". I asked her what she meant and she said that she was referring to the fact that white people treat pets like kids! haha okay.

I do believe that children's opinions about other cultures are formed early on mainly by their parents. So once again, by the time they get to high school, it's pretty ingrained in. A lot of people nowadays complain about all of the Hispanic immigrants in the US, but I really see it as a good thing. And on many levels, but for the sake of this blog entry, I will limit it to just one reason. And that is to provide more diversity in our schools. When I went to school in a small town in MO, there was NO diversity in the school. It wasn't until I went off to college that I even knew anyone of a different ethnicity, let alone was friends with someone. So the kids in school have a great opportunity now to learn about other cultures.

As a teacher I cannot change prejudices ingrained in these kids. But I can challenge them by being fair and compassionate to all students. As one of my fellow teachers used to say, "I wish we would all wake up one morning with orange skin and purple hair. Then there would be no such thing as racial discrimination."