Questions to reflect on and consider...
1. How diverse is my personal circle and why does it look like it does?
I definitely have been around diversity my entire teenage to adult life. From attending Sweet Home High School, which was and still is a very diverse school for being in the suburb of Amherst. Playing on the basketball team for four years, which allowed me to become friends/teammates with a number of African American students. Then attending Buffalo State College, which was also a very diverse college campus. Working at Cardinal O'Hara HS and now Sweet Home HS. My (our) friend group between work, church, and my son's school has grown to include African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. It's very important to us, and to show our son, the importance and benefit of having different friend groups and people in our lives. The importance of living out diversity in our own lives...
5. Do I consider the integration of diverse historical perspectives best practice or divisive politics? As a social studies teacher (and mainly a US history teacher), we try to teach the idea of having and incorporating multiple perspectives into the understanding of our history. We look at the perspective of the Native Americans during the First Encounter with Columbus; Native Americans during the Trail of Tears; the role of African Americans and women during the Reforming Age and Progressive Era; pro and anti-imperialism views; Japanese-Americans living on the west coast after Pearl Harbor (internment camps). We are constantly learning about and considering different audiences, purposes, biases, and point of views in history. It's very important to expand our knowledge/understanding of these topics and to see them from a different historical lens (bias, POV) than the one that we're always taught in our schools, etc. To learn about different cultures, backgrounds, races and religions and their struggles throughout the course of history.
1. How diverse is my personal circle and why does it look like it does?
I definitely have been around diversity my entire teenage to adult life. From attending Sweet Home High School, which was and still is a very diverse school for being in the suburb of Amherst. Playing on the basketball team for four years, which allowed me to become friends/teammates with a number of African American students. Then attending Buffalo State College, which was also a very diverse college campus. Working at Cardinal O'Hara HS and now Sweet Home HS. My (our) friend group between work, church, and my son's school has grown to include African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. It's very important to us, and to show our son, the importance and benefit of having different friend groups and people in our lives. The importance of living out diversity in our own lives...
5. Do I consider the integration of diverse historical perspectives best practice or divisive politics? As a social studies teacher (and mainly a US history teacher), we try to teach the idea of having and incorporating multiple perspectives into the understanding of our history. We look at the perspective of the Native Americans during the First Encounter with Columbus; Native Americans during the Trail of Tears; the role of African Americans and women during the Reforming Age and Progressive Era; pro and anti-imperialism views; Japanese-Americans living on the west coast after Pearl Harbor (internment camps). We are constantly learning about and considering different audiences, purposes, biases, and point of views in history. It's very important to expand our knowledge/understanding of these topics and to see them from a different historical lens (bias, POV) than the one that we're always taught in our schools, etc. To learn about different cultures, backgrounds, races and religions and their struggles throughout the course of history.