Dreidel diversity

I must admit, I tend to be a bit skeptical of schools' diversity rhetoric. Don't get me wrong; it is the rhetoric I have issue with, not the diversity itself. I think diversity in our schools is hugely important and it's a big part of what made northwest London such an attractive place for us to live and educate our children. But I don't believe that carefully stacking a classroom with two of each colour, as the independent schools seem wont to do here, adequately addresses the issue in and of itself. Such careful class assignments provide schools with indisputable evidence (right there in black and white) that they embrace diversity, but I sometimes wonder whether that somehow lets those schools off the hook where actually providing a culturally broad curriculum is concerned.

This week, however, I saw an example of diversity at its best in Julia's classroom. On the final day of Chanukah, several mothers came into school to teach the class about the history and traditions of the holiday. Well over a third of Julia's classmates are Jewish, so the Maccabees' story and the lighting of the menorah was old hat to many of the children. But not a one save her friend Yuki knew how to make an origami dreidel until his Japanese mother arrived alongside the Jewish mums with white, blue, gold and purple paper squares in hand. Julia came home from school that day bubbling over with excitement about her new Chanukah crafting skill. And I began to think that maybe the simple act of bringing people of different backgrounds and cultures together in a classroom does a lot more good than I'd ever realized.