Diversity issues
By Mark Graham
@marky7 (563)
Independence, Louisiana
April 19, 2016 10:48am CST
I will be writing my dissertation and I am asking anyone out there if they have any suggestions on teaching diversity to students (child, teen or even adult students) let me know. I will be comparing various textbooks through the decades to see how much or how little diversity is and was taught and I plan on writing activities to further increase diversity teaching and learning. For example, how would you teach if allowed in certain school about the LGBT community? I know that this topic is very controversial but with that community out there wouldn't it be helpful to parents to be able to explain why that man looks like a woman or why that woman looks like a man. I only thought about this after having dinner at a local restaurant and saw a man that I thought was a woman at first and I just wondered what/who was that.
2 people like this
1 response
@puddleglum (1380)
• United States
20 Apr 16
I studied diversity issues quite a bit for my undergraduate degree. It was mostly from a business perspective, but there was one important idea I learned about that is generally applicable. One of the first steps in embracing and celebrating diversity is recognizing our biases. Most of us tend to have inner prejudices for and against certain groups of people--even if we don't realize it or fight to avoid it.
I don't think this is such an issue with small children, but with older ones and adults, bias (or prejudice) can be formidable. I think a great place to start is to explore this topic. In a safe, nonjudgmental environment, you could begin a dialogue about how we all tend to think about and assess other people. For example, What generalizations and assumptions might be keeping us from accepting diversity?
@marky7 (563)
• Independence, Louisiana
20 Apr 16
I believe that learning more about diversity is also about becoming empowered to learn more of our fellow workers and learning about them as well. We do have to get over our various biases that we hold or not. We are all different and we need to try and accept those differences for God made us all different for a reason. Sometimes I think this world is still like the Tower of Babel. No one really listens correctly to each other.
1 person likes this
@puddleglum (1380)
• United States
20 Apr 16
@marky7 I agree with your assessment. People struggle with listening. I like that you said "correctly." There's a big tendency for us to assume we know what's being said without stopping to think if we truly understand the meaning in what we hear. It's my opinion that the rush to assume is connected to bias, in the sense that bias informs the assumption.
Great discussion! 
