Think Piece on Diversity 2

Daniel Kennedy

ADMPS 3003

November 17, 1998

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After writing a rather dull but fairly long review of the readings for this weeks class, it appeared to me that my own views of how I see myself and others wasn’t adequately detailed. Rather than to re-write that previous piece, I’ve opted to write another more closely related to my personal perspective of diversity as related in the articles.

It is apparent to me that we are as creatures slow to change and even slower in understanding the need to change. We have historically lived together in small islands of isolation which serve to protect us as well as to provide us with strength in numbers. These small islands of ‘togetherness’ have also codified our observations about the ‘others’ who may be out there. In the absence of ‘others’, we historically have catagorized within our individual groups. "We are not like them", said the star-bellied sneetches (Dr. Suess, 1961).

Our struggle, as thinking and hopefully rational creatures, is to work toward realizing that the differences between us are things to work toward not being afraid of. I have often wondered about the ‘hazing’ ritual we put each other through in so many areas. We seem to beleive that our personal examples (as evidenced by how we got to where we are) should be seen as the only way to acheive. While I am of Irish descent, I really don’t have any idea of the problems historically suffered by the Irish at the hands of the English other than what I’ve read. Is that enough for me to form a negative view of all English people? I hope not, but somewhere, the logic that enables this decision to be made is lost in reference to other, more unique cultures. I find that while I can honestly say that I try to treat everyone the same until I know them, I still find myself pigeon-holing people into catagories. It’s possible that it’s just easier to formulate order that way and to just have to call types to mind rather than people, but that’s really the same thing as catagory by race.

Each of these articles touches an issue related to how one travels through the waters of making these decisions. While I am not in agreement with Sleeter (1993)that choosing to not be involved in a formal program evidences denial, I do agree that our core values are shaded by what we think we know and what we think we are doing about it. This issue is also raised in the Goodman article, specifically our western attitude toward different ways of knowing. New ideas can upset carefully crafted plans (Goodman, 1996), but the key is to open yourself up to including new experiences or ways of looking at things.

The Altenbaugh article goes a long way to showing how truly subversive lack of understanding of an issue can be. While we have for years trumpeted our success in equality in gender relations, the historical nature of this ariticle indicates that part of the failure to adequately address gender issues is possibly related to the subconscious as well as conscious marginilization of female teachers early on (both males and females are involved in this as a power over and power aquiesnce issue), as well as the prospect of keeping them on the margin. Obviously it has been to the advantage of groups in power to keep those in minority positions off-balance as much as possible but I’m not quite sure that it’s always done consciously for that purpose.

All of these articles indicate to me that change in these areas is slow to occur. In order for a magnitude of change to occur the very essence of some strong core values we also champion need to be modified. We must move to a reality were each individual is able to integrate multiple values where our diversity is what makes us equal, rather than a reality that all are professed to be equal with no integration of differing values.

Goodman, Allan. (February 16,1996). "What Foreign Students Contribute." The Chronicle of Higher Education . p. A52.