In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I wanted to write a little about diversity–not in lofty, wouldn’t-it-be-nice way–but in a more ordinary, every day, reality way. I was having coffee earlier this week with an old friend who has two small preschool age children. It just so happens that his children are in the same child care program at our local YMCA that my own children attended more than a decade ago. I was surprised and excited to find that he and his wife appreciated many of the same things that I had loved about it–mainly, the diversity.
We live in a medium-sized college town that is overwhelmingly white. But that doesn’t mean there are no differences and diversity here. In fact, once you get out of the hills and the “top coat” of our city, there is plenty of diversity–not just in terms of race and ethnic background, but economic, individuals with disabilities, sexual orientation, age, etc. I think when we think of “diversity” we often think just in terms of color–but there is so much more variety in people and experiences and circumstances, if we just open our eyes and look for it.
I think a parents, sometimes it’s easier to read our children sanctioned books and talk about diversity–living it is much messier and definitely more uncomfortable. As a matter of fact, I think for many of us, our lives can be fairly cushioned from diversity and if we want our children to learn and experience true variety and differences, we have to actually seek it out.
In our city, there have been opportunities for my kids to be more integrated in a cultural and humanly diverse world–but I’ve had to hunt. Our local YMCA and Boys and Girls Club definitely provided the most accessible programs to kids and attracted a wonderfully diverse group of children. Also, from the time my kids were in elementary school, I taught them to ride public transportation–exposing them even more to some of our economic and ability diverse neighbors. I’ve known some families who have purposefully chosen their neighborhoods based on the diversity–wanting to live in and be surrounded by the energy and layers that only exist in culturally and economically diverse neighborhoods.
I think if we seek out and live diversity as families and as parents, our children come to expect and appreciate a full, complicated, human existence–not to mention they will be better prepared to live in a growingly diverse world and open to all the variety and differences modern life has to offer.