Dimensions of Diversity

I cribbed the title from the cover story of an upcoming educational conference. Diversity has been, and apparently remains, a major theme in education. Students, it seems, come in a variety of learning styles and from culturally diverse backgrounds. A teacher with a reasonably long and varied career is likely to teach the children of farmers and physicians, professors and crack whores, and each of those children will come with her own problems and idiosyncracies.

So it's a good idea for a teacher to have some idea what they will be dealing with, but I still think that a little more time might be spent reminding teachers that it's not really their job to honor or celebrate that diversity. Their actual job is to teach those diverse little rascals to read, write, calculate, and work harmoniously with others.

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