Diversity Day
That sounds like the title to an episode of The Office…. Today in class we read a Persian folk tale. Three brothers are rug weavers and the prince of Persia has to marry the princess of Bagdad (their spelling, not mine) and he runs a competition for rugs… long story short, the brothers argue over who makes the best contribution (dyeing, designing, or weaving) and should get the prize. They finally realize they must all work together, not be selfish. Alone they are breakable like sticks, but united they can do much more!! (Go Processing Center!) Okay, obscure personal references aside, today was eye-opening. One of my students excitedly raised her hand and proclaimed that she is Persian! What?? Never would have guessed, although having seen her mom I knew she had some foreign ancestry. Persian. Now, my class of 26 is pretty diverse, so I asked how many of them, besides my Persian who speaks Persian (Farsi?) and German, spoke different languages.
All but about 3 raised their hands. 3/26. One knows Egyptian. Another knows Russian. Urdu. Tamil. Mandarin. German. Spanish (this was the answer I got from a few of my white students). I didn’t even have time to poll everyone. The other cool thing? Well besides having an extremely diverse class, I can say hi to most of them in their own language. Except Egyptian. And Farsi. And maybe a few others I haven’t uncovered yet. But….. I said most, not all. Bam. Win for my students for being awesome.
All but about 3 raised their hands. 3/26. One knows Egyptian. Another knows Russian. Urdu. Tamil. Mandarin. German. Spanish (this was the answer I got from a few of my white students). I didn’t even have time to poll everyone. The other cool thing? Well besides having an extremely diverse class, I can say hi to most of them in their own language. Except Egyptian. And Farsi. And maybe a few others I haven’t uncovered yet. But….. I said most, not all. Bam. Win for my students for being awesome.
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