Teaching Students About Diversity

With the continually increasing amount of technology available to students, bullying is becoming a bigger problem in schools. Not only do students tease their classmates on the playground, but they now have a wide assortment of social networking websites to utilize. Cyber bullying has been the cause of many teenage suicides recently and schools are starting to fight back.


Diversity is a growing concern in schools today and educators need to find a way to help students be more accepting of others who may be different than them. As mentioned in the New York Times article, "At A Long Island Middle School, A Course in What Unites and Divides", a middle school in New York is now offering a class about diversity to seventh and eighth grade students. These students are learning about false stereotypes, discrimination against others and how to overcome these differences.

I think that classes like this could really help cut down on the bullying and teasing that students participate in today. Programs like this give students a chance to talk about tough issues and share experiences and thoughts with each other and gives them a chance to better get to know their classmates. I believe that the first step to getting students to respect one another is getting them to care for one another. Sharing with each other is a great way for students to get to know their classmates and once they realize they aren't alone in their differences and that being yourself isn't so bad, these kids will learn to care about one another.

The government is also taking notice. Government officials recently met to create new guidelines for schools and administrators on how to deal with discrimination and bullying in schools. In the article from CNN, "Government Warns Schools That Bullying Can Violate Civil Rights Laws," Cohen writes that "if school administrators fail to properly deal with harassment ... they risk being cited for contributing to a pattern of civil rights violations that could, in extreme cases, lead to a cut in federal funding."

I'm glad that the government has paid some attention to this issue and is making an effort to fix it but taking away federal funding may be a little harsh. A lot of times it's hard for educators to see that bullying is going on in the school especially now that most of it takes place online and not on school property. Instead of being on the lookout for these kinds of behaviors we need to be preventing them. That's why classes like the one I talked about earlier are so important. We have to teach our children that these actions are not ok before they start treating each other this way.



Beth Iseminger. May 29, 2010. Faces in the Flag. Retrieved on October 24, 2010 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gardenbeth/4673663972/in/photostream/.