Teaching Your Kids About Diversity
Like Parent, Like Child
It’s never too early to teach your kids about diversity, being different, and standing out. I have been working with kids for a couple of years, and I have learned that kids are a reflection of their parents. If a child’s parent is — let’s say — not concerned with diversity and prefers living in a bubble — then the child will pick up on that attitude. Here are some tips and ideas to incorporate diversity in your classrooms and home.
Incorporating Diversity at Home and in the Classroom
- Name Examples- When making a test or using an example in class or with your child, it’s better to use a variety of names. Don’t just continue to use the names “John and Sally.” Rather also use “Jose, Yang, Ahmed, Evalina, etc. That way when the child actually meets a “Jose” then he will think, “Oh yeah, I have heard your name before; it doesn’t sound unfamiliar.” And plus, if you do have a Jose in your class, he will feel more welcomed.
- Holidays- I recommend that Muslim parents talk to their teachers when Eid or Ramadan are coming up. Suggest activities for the teacher to do in the class so your child feels that his holiday is valued as well; whether it’s coloring a sheep for Eid Al-Adha or making fanoos (lanterns).
- Special Needs- It upsets me when children poke fun of children with special needs. Sit down and talk to your children about how God created everyone differently and some children need more special attention than others. Laughing at and making fun of others is never okay.
- Activities- Do fun activities that highlight diversity. Make a poster board with all the children’s hand prints, and have them write one thing that is different about them. Make a “diversity” board and put photos of different children on them and write “America is diverse” or something similar. The point is to let them know that Americans come from different backgrounds, cultures, and religions. I recently made cupcakes with faces on them but I made sure the faces were diverse. Such activities truly make a difference.
- Languages- I remember when I was in 3rd grade my teacher knew that I was Egyptian-American and asked my mother and I if we can write all my classmates’ names in Arabic on a sheet of paper. I was so excited and sounded out all the names and translated them into English. The next day I gave the names to my teacher, and the teacher cut each person’s name out and gave it to that person. Everyone then copied the beautiful Arabic letters onto construction paper, and the teacher hung them all up on a wall and it looked like a beautiful quilt. If you are a teacher, maybe you could do something similar. If you are a parent, don’t be afraid to suggest ideas like that to the teacher.
- Be open- Talk to your child or class about being different. Tell them it’s totally fine to be different and that America is like a salad (not a melting pot as it once was because melting pot implies that we all melt into one and lose our special qualities). We have the lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and mushrooms. We have the salad dressing that goes all over us that connects us in one way or another but we are all still different and happy (and delicious).
This article was first published at www.americanmuslimmom.com
