Diversity's many faces, and why tolerance looks good on them all

Turning a new leaf in Stephen Brookfield's book this week, I'd like to touch on a marvelous quote "As teachers we all bring different gifts and handicaps to the table." (Brookfield, 2015)

Why yes, and thank you!

I have faculty who love what technology can do, yet don't feel at all comfortable to operate it themselves. Other very experienced faculty who know material inside and out, but do not feel quite so comfortable with change, even when they know where the problem lies in the material. The how to of the fix remains elusive. I know I love a new creative idea, but sometimes fail to lay it out in depth and detail for others to have a clue what I'd doing!

Never is their JUST the gift, we all have handicaps we also must navigate around and with.

Part of what this chapter delved into is drawing this topic out into a wider spectrum of diversity. Brookfield illustrates how we can not really declare we "understand" what is outside our experiences, (be that ethic, gender, age or other demographic states we hold) at the time.

It made me think of this satire by blogger Allie Stucky. While it's poking fun, it is based on an actual newspaper story. (Yikkes!)

Regardless of where we stand, what out background may be, I think it can remind us, whether we feel religious about something or not, the first step should always to to seek to understand (Covey, 1988). In the classroom, we are bound to come across differences. If we can respect both others and ourselves while we explore these differences (directly or indirectly) we stand a much better change of getting where we want to go intact, and with everyone on board.