Should We Teach Diversity Awareness In Schools? By: Tariq Thomas

As the world become increasingly more interconnected and diverse, a question arises; should we teach diversity and cultural awareness? Statistics from the Virginia Department of Health and the US Census Bureau show that Virginia, and indeed the rest of the US, are getting more and more diverse with each passing year. (“Virginia Population Estimates.”;“QuickFacts Virginia.”)These changes are not expected to slow, and because of this many are wondering; how can we adapt to better support diversity and culture awareness in our communities?

This question is not new, in fact many colleges and businesses have tried to answer it by offering, and in some cases requiring, that their students, teachers, or employees complete some level of diversity awareness training. This year Maria Cox of Shady Grove YMCA created HB6, a proposal to amend and reenact § 22.1-253.13:4 of the Code of Virginia in order to mandate this sort of diversity awareness training. Her bill would require all students to take a free one semester class on “embracing cultural diversity and sensitivity”. When asked why she thought that this important, Ms. Cox replied:

Everyone is different in this commonwealth, we have different opinions, genders, ethnicities and cultures. These differences are what make our country unique and these differences are the reasons we have advancements in technology, the arts, the economy, engineering, and society. But these differences are not embraced. They are constantly categorized and seperated due to the media, racial bias, prejudice, and not having an open mind. This can change, and it all begins with education.

Her bill passed its committee meeting with universal support, but seemed to lose much of its support during the commonwealth house chamber meeting. The bills detractors did not oppose the underlying idea of diversity sensitivity training proposed, in fact the idea seemed to be almost universally welcomed, but delegates did find issues with the wording and structure of the bill. Delegates pointed out that the bill did not specify what grade or grades would be required to take this class, nor did it specify what the curriculum or requirements for teachers of the class would be. Because of the vague wording of the bill, it was rejected during the chamber meeting.

Works Cited

“QuickFacts Virginia.” U.S. Census Bureau census.gov/quickfacts/VA. Accessed 23 March 2018.

“Virginia Population Estimates.” Virginia Department of Health., vdh.virginia.gov/data/demographics/. Accessed 23 March 2018.