In my 17 plus years of teaching, something that has always been a part of every educational experience is cultural diversity. Way back in my student teaching days, I had the opportunities to learn how to become a teacher in two very distinct environments. The first was a military community, in which new students came and went with the deployment of their families. The next was a migrant farm community, where the students lived in central California part of the year, as their parents grew and harvested crops. In every year since my beginnings, what has made each and every one of my classrooms distinct was the variety of backgrounds present, the mixture of ethnicities and the different home languages spoken. What warmed my heart in each and every class was how students didn’t see these differences, instead they just saw students -students who looked different or who sounded different, as a friend.
My family and I made a permanent move to Southern Baja, Mexico this past June from San Diego. We opted for a slower pace of life in a quiet community to allow our children the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Spanish language. We are learning so much about our community daily, and it has been very rewarding to become contributing members of our small town. Additionally, our children (grades 6 and 8) are attending school here and are both thriving in the environment.
In my short time at Dailies, I know I have found a happy home because I can see the diversity throughout each of the pods, the large group classes, and the DailiesSchool classes. From the teachers, the staff, and to each family, everyone comes from a range of backgrounds. Everyone is sprinkled throughout different parts of the United States and even in other countries. But when each class session begins, it is the diversity that makes the class whole. It’s the collective differences that make us unique.
By Tracy Johnston, Dailies Teacher
