Educate for diversity
Before talking about diversity, we need to underline the idea of individuality because life is a set of identities with which we deal as individuals first of all. Our lives are the contacts between different personalities.
We often identify the others as the group of individuals with similar characteristics, erasing the concept of different people as individual identities. Subsequently, we create negative ideas that lead the others as a source of the threat, engendering feelings of fear and anxiety. Therefore prejudice occurs, which means judging before the experience, without concrete examples which prove an opinion or judgment.
Let’s teach diversity. It is not innate.
The difficulty of accepting the other comes from the method of education we receive within the family and school. We should teach the youngsters, the importance of diversity as a richness and resource for growth because the only contact with others can bring us awareness of ourselves and our identity.
Educating on the importance of dialogue and listening would be good. It is necessary to introduce kids to the idea of empathy to develop their critical skills, helping them come out of the box.
What are the appropriate activities to educate our children about diversity?
1. Those related to the cinema and the audiovisual language can certainly help. The analysis of movies and protagonists’ points of view help to put children in the shoes of the characters. In the age of images, educating to look beyond will help kids to be more selective and critical in the use of pictures that are given by media and our surroundings.
Image education also takes place by visiting museums. Introducing the little ones to the artistic works and authors’ life may aid in shaping critical and consciousness in terms of diversity.
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2. Travelling allows children to experience with their eyes and body that the world is also the one that is out of their context. There are other people out there who live different lives and experiences as well.
Why does diversity mean wealth?
Diversity is already in nature with its countless species that interact with each other while maintaining the balance of an ecosystem.
A multicultural, multiethnic society, therefore the one based on diversity, brings innovation and progress because comparison and debating is the father of ideas and is an opportunity for cultural and moral growth.
In short, diversity is contamination, which brings innovation and the expansion of human knowledge.
There is an opportunity in diversity, and it is essential to teach it to our little ones
Mash&Co Team
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