When I entered the doors of my new school, I realized that my school is beautiful. Not the bricks, or the tiling, or the cement walls necessarily, but the students who make the school a school. They are a beautiful collage of colors and shapes and sizes and never before have I seen such seamless diversity. As a Caucasian, I am a minority here. This is new to me, but I love the experience because I feel like I am but one component in this rainbow of ethnicity. I love the foreign words in the hallways and the various stylings of hair and attire that designate the unique environment that we each come from even within the limited geography of our school district.
Above all however, I love my seating chart. My seating chart is the epitome of racial integration. The students were instructed by their teacher on the first day to sit where they'd like, and they did. They sat next to friends of different races and strangers of different ethnicities. They integrated themselves into a beautiful pattern of skin tones unlike anything I had formally seen. Every table represents its own unique blend of culture, and I relish in the fact that I can just as easily integrate myself into their mix. They will, I have no doubt, have as many things to teach me as I do them in the realm of social studies.
I have always in my life been outspoken about my sincere desire for equality among people, but never before have I seen this desire materialized so blatantly before my eyes, and by children none the less. My classroom is what equality looks like. My classroom is what true integration looks like. My classroom is beautiful.
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