I just read a newspaper article about an amazing organization that is fostering empathy between children of different cultures and countries in wonderful ways. It’s called Children’s Culture Connection. I spent the last hour on the website reading about the kids in countries from Iraq to Haiti to India, kids in Africa, Asian, South America […]
It was about 10 years ago, when I was volunteering in my son’s 6th grade classroom. It was Ramadan, and one of the girls in his class was wearing a headscarf. I overheard her telling the children about how she had to fast, that she would not be able to eat anything until sundown. Her […]
I got to experience a little bit of empathy for what it feels like to be homeless recently. My church is part of a group of churches that participate in a program called “Families Moving Forward.” Families who have recently become homeless can use this program, which offers them a place to stay as well […]
It ‘s good to experience being in the minority sometimes, if you are usually of the majority. My childhood experience was as majority as you can get–a WASP in Minnesota in the ’50’s and ’60’s. Now Minnesota is much more diverse, of course. But in my elementary and junior high school years in a small […]
I am a teacher. Various in-service opportunities are offered at our school. One day, a co-worker in the administration area of our school offered a diversity in-service workshop on herself–her life as a lesbian. I can’t imagine what courage it took for her to stand up in front of 30 of her co-workers and tell […]
On Tuesday, January 20th, we were all brothers and sisters together as Barack Obama became our president. Everywhere, the tears of joy and liberation flowed–from the Washington Mall to the Mall of America, on faces of every color, from young eyes and old. When elderly African-Americans spoke on TV cameras of their memories of racial […]