Diversity in the Home
That was the class that Chris and I took today as part of our ongoing training to maintain our license. It seemed an appropriate class for us since we are adopting Byron. It was a really interesting class. We began by drawing a picture of ourselves (always a fun way to start a class) and we had to put alongside our picture me the following information: Name, Ethnicity, Occupation, Religion, Favorite Food, Hobbies and A word that describes you. Then, we passed the pictures around our table and if you could identify with anything on the sheet, you initialed the other person's paper. This exercise was to demonstrate how different and similar people can be aside from outside appearances. It was fun, despite sounding rather corny. If there is one thing I have learned from having these classes it's that you will have to draw a picture and talk about feelings....neither are terribly comfortable to do in a room full of strangers.
After the picture drawing and sharing, we moved on to defining the things that influence us. We covered the major areas of life that contribute to who you are (ie religion, family, culture, location, etc) The group was a pretty close split of blacks and whites and there was a lot of good dialogue throughout the day. It was a good class for having questions answered from both sides, really. All in all I had a really good time.
Towards the end, the class spiraled a little down hill and I was getting a sense of frustration from the teacher. We were dealing with prejudices and there were some real apparent ones coming out from some of the participants. There were a few people that said some pretty ignorant things that really seemed to bother the teacher and despite her best efforts at redirecting/instructing on their outlooks, it was clear to me that those ladies comments will become fodder for her future classes when she gives examples of what not to say if you do not want to come across prejudiced. I was disappointed with them myself. I don't quite understand why they were in the class in they intended to be closed minded.
After the picture drawing and sharing, we moved on to defining the things that influence us. We covered the major areas of life that contribute to who you are (ie religion, family, culture, location, etc) The group was a pretty close split of blacks and whites and there was a lot of good dialogue throughout the day. It was a good class for having questions answered from both sides, really. All in all I had a really good time.
Towards the end, the class spiraled a little down hill and I was getting a sense of frustration from the teacher. We were dealing with prejudices and there were some real apparent ones coming out from some of the participants. There were a few people that said some pretty ignorant things that really seemed to bother the teacher and despite her best efforts at redirecting/instructing on their outlooks, it was clear to me that those ladies comments will become fodder for her future classes when she gives examples of what not to say if you do not want to come across prejudiced. I was disappointed with them myself. I don't quite understand why they were in the class in they intended to be closed minded.
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