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 "Teaching" Diversity 
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My first day working at Hillcrest Elementary, I was faced with an interesting situation. The 5th grade teacher I work with articulated his disinterest in one of our assignments for CI3000 (Learner Diversity class). We have to interview one of our teachers and ask how they support diverse learners in the classroom and ask them to describe the dynamics of the school over the last few years. Needless to say, Hillcrest Elementary is an incredibly diverse school with all kinds of learners. Our teacher said he didn't understand the importance or why it was necessary that we interview him and talk to him about the diversity in his classroom and the school. He thought it wasn't something you needed to talk about openly. He actually told me that he felt that Learner Diversity didn't even need to be a class that we took in college. He feels that diversity is something that shouldn't really be looked at or analyzed to have a successful classroom. He thinks issues of diversity should be innate. I had never thought of it that way before, especially since I really enjoy that course. It's an awkward subject to bring up now with him and I was wondering if anyone else might have some more insight as to why he feels this way or if anyone somewhat agrees with this teacher? I apologize to those who don't have to take or haven't had Learner Diversity but it's definitely still an issue everyone can discuss!

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Lauren Leslie


Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:52 pm
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I never really thought of diversity being an innate thing, particularly as children grow and change schools. They will be faced with more and more diverse environments as they grow and head out into the working world. This is especially true if the student comes from a small town that may lack the diversity that Hillcrest does. But students that continue on to college will experience diversity not only skin-deep but with different social classes and cultures. I think that students should be educated and have the ability to talk about diversity so their eyes can be opened before they move on and get older. I actually did a senior project on Learning styles and differences, and it was really interesting to see how they all related to each other and how they are used and worked with the in the classroom. I don't really know if this is really the answer you were looking for, because I have not taken the course yet, but i do feel it is important to talk about diversity and it is important for us to have a course on the topic.

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Kristina Bleynat


Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:20 pm
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I feel that the class, Learner Diversity is important. Some people may have gone the majority of their lives experiencing little diversity and this class could possibly be the first class where they are given any real knowledge on diversity. So many stereotypes are created in society and sometimes even people who are very well aware of diversity and open minded need to be reminded that stereotypes are just stereotypes. Everyone, especially people who are going to be teachers need to reflect on their own prejudices, because in one way or another, everyone has developed stereotypes.

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Jennifer Lawson


Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:02 pm
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I'm jealous that I didn't have to take that class, I think it would have been interesting. But in direct correlaiton to your question, I do not know if I can put words in his mouth, so in my opinion, I can see where he was coming from when he stated that diversity should be innate. In an ideal world, yes diversity would be innate, but with so many places in this country being anything but diverse, it cannot be. Personally, I grew up in a city where I had never taken skin color, culture, ethnicities into much account. People were people, and that may have been that my parents never talked about people by attaching such lables as "you know who I am talking about, the black woman" or it may have been that I was at an age where I wasn't aware of such a thing as diversity. But, as Kristina said, no everyone has that experience, and when people move out of there small town or family, they may carry stereotypes with them. The teacher that you were discussing may have grown up in a place similar to mine, but from the way you described the discourse of your conversation, it struck me as odd that he said that diversity shouldn't be discussed. I think that the problem lies in the fact that for too long the term "diversity" has carried the hidden connotation of "different" and to be different is to be abnormal somehow. I hope that makes sense.

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Ann Boschini


Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:46 pm
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As you might guess from our work in this course, I do not believe there is any such thing as an "innate" understanding of these issues. This teacher's perspective really concerns me, because it implies that he doesn't understand the significance of difference, nor that difference is complex!

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Gayle Turner


Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:36 pm
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I don't really know what that teacher meant by diversity being innate, but I think that he is wrong to question the course itself. Our country is all about diversity, and our teachers need to know that their students are not all going to be from the same social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. Of course diversity is innate, and we need to foster it and make use of it. Having diverse classrooms is a blessing because it allows students to learn that everyone else isn't just like them, and it helps teach them how to interact with people who are different from themselves.

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Karl Rahn


Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:40 pm
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