Vanessa Chavez
Staff Reporter
Millard South’s Diversity Club headed out to Holling Heights Elementary school to teach kindergartners and second graders the importance of diversity as well as to talk to them about Hispanic Heritage Month.
“I believe it’s important to teach diversity at a young age because kids have not yet developed deep-seeded biases; youth is much more likely to be open-minded and consider accepting all people before life experiences and cultural influences solidify prejudices,” said Sarah Martin, Diversity Club Sponsor.
In order to make it easy to understand for such young ages, the club used visuals to represent the tenants of valuing diversity, giving students tupperware lids and asking them to match their lid with the coordinating container. When the activity was complete, club members were able to illustrate how–despite the fact that the lids were different colors and shapes and the containers were different sizes–they all served the same purpose…just like people come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, but still have universal emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, etc.), and all are capable of love. A club member also read a bilingual book to the classes which Martin says showed kids how awesome it is to be able to embrace more than one culture.
“Our goal was make diversity part of purposeful dialogue, and to give students concrete examples that will help solidify the abstract concept of recognizing and appreciating what makes us all unique,“ Martin said.
Photo by Vanessa Chavez
