Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Endangered Species

One of my students who is Filipino made me think today about how life may sometimes be difficult for her. I think that although we all look differently, sometimes we really just want to look the same. The school I work in has so little cultural diversity; it has to be an anomaly. There are only two Filipino students in our entire grade, and perhaps only one or two more in the rest of the school. She wrote on her hand, “Asian - Endangered Species.” It made me pause and think, I just tapped her hand, slightly nodding and smiled at her. I am proud of her ability to express herself. In the world at large she is not a minority, but in our little community she is. I do however have to hope that she was just having a homesick day (she's been in this area almost a year) and she doesn’t normally feel that way.

1 comment:

Geoff. said...

Poor child, she needs all the support she can get. We have the whole world menagerie in NZ and our schools have very diverse ethnic spread, depending upon which region you visit, the ethnic majority can be European, Polynesian, Maori or even Chinese. It's especially difficult for the little ones, but things DO improve for them once they gain their place in the pecking order.