Shining the Spotlight on Multicultural Diversity Day (October 20)
Today is Multicultural Diversity Day
(October 20)
As you can imagine, this day is one of many that are important to us because it helps shine the spotlight and start conversation about diversity in our world.
Here’s a excerpt of some great information from the NEA website.
For more than a decade, educators have celebrated National Multicultural Diversity Day (NMDD) on the third Monday in October. Created by Cleorah Scruggs, a fourth-grade teacher in Flint, Michigan, the day was adopted as a national event by the 1993 Representative Assembly to “increase awareness of the tremendous need to celebrate our diversity collectively.”
You can get involved just by being creative. Start by sharing cultural information with your class about yourself. Introduce students to multicultural issues by inviting a local expert to talk about diversity. Sing songs that celebrate diversity. Ask students to bring in items or food representative of their ethnic heritage to share with classmates. Share with students that diversity is a core democratic value and that we should respect all people. Diversity means freedom and justice for all of us, not just some of us.
Related Links
- Diversity Toolkit – An introduction to the multiple facets of diversity.
- Promoting Educators’ Cultural Competence To Better Serve Culturally Diverse Students – An NEA policy brief.
- So Our Campuses Look Like All of Us – From The NEA Higher Education Journal.
- Research Spotlight on Recruiting & Retaining a Highly Qualified, Diverse Teaching Workforce
- 50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Read
- Teaching Diversity and Multiculturalism in the Classroom Discussion Board
Other Resources for great Diversity reads and conversation starters:
PragmaticMom’s Multicultural Booklist
The Guardian: Diverse voices: the 50 best culturally diverse children’s books: An incredible list of the 50 best children’s books published from 1950 to the present day that celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity is released today
Stories for All from First Book
All Children Deserve to See Themselves in Story: CBC Diversity, 2.5 Years In | Children’s Book Council
