Kindergarten Perspective on Diversity

Today, I went for my weekly volunteer time in Rylee’s kindergarten classroom. I go during their literacy center time. The class is broken up into different stations such as reading, writing, listening, games, etc. Today, I worked with children in the writing center. Each time I go, I learn something and gain a new perspective. Today, I got to work with two children from Saudi Arabia, one who just started this week, and another child whom I had worked with before. This sweet new face got me thinking about understanding and embracing differences(we had a little communication issue to begin with). Rylee’s class has a lot of diversity. Several ethnic backgrounds are present in her room. This is one of the reasons I like Rylee’s school so much. Rylee has experienced more diversity her first 3 ½ weeks of school than I did k-12. I never knew much about other types of individual as a child, I learned about other places and traveled through the US but the idea of diversity was never introduced to me as being important. I only really knew black and white and honestly, I never did learn much about African American culture. Which is a shame because an amazing African American woman helped to raise me and was one of the most important individuals in my life.  I am not talking history. I am talking culture. It is important to learn about where individuals come from, what they believe, and why. I think as Americans we take that fact that we were all once immigrants for granted. I am not even sure most Americans really even know their own cultural background. I don’t really. We all studied the hardships in our history classes that different ethnic and cultural groups have gone through but have we ever applied to our everyday lives.  It is very important to me that my children grow up knowing that every person has value and purpose. I want them to know diversity is a good thing. If we were all the same, it would be quite boring, right? What is important to understand is people may look different, people may act differently but essentially we are all the same. We all just want to know that we are loved and understood by someone. These children are a great example of understanding and community because all they see when they look at each other is their friend and classmate, a child that is like them.  I think the ability to except and understand others is just as important as any other thing we teach our young. Difference is a good thing and often it is not valued like it should be. If your child does not have this type of exposure on a day to day basis, you can create exposure for them.With the technology we have today no one should limit their cultural exposure to the world or even our own country.