Valuing diversity is the key to learning

Ernst Ford

To the editors:

I service the School District’s public and charter school students through a school bus company. My job is to pick up and drop off students and make sure they’re on time. Some students are well behaved and others are difficult to deal with. It is not an easy task, but I am glad to be of service to our children.

I have the privilege to talk to some of the students on my bus. They speak about their grades, detention in school, violence, and other issues like what they want to do as their career. I notice that they have little to no knowledge of the contributions made by their ancestors to the development of this nation and others. They do not know much about the vast contributions made by Granville T. Woods, Elijah McCoy, Benjamin Banneker, Garrett A. Morgan, Julian Francis Abele, and Lewis Latimer. Knowledge of self builds self-esteem, and no education is complete without learning history.

A student on my bus who attends a charter school said she was not happy with her school due to the fact that any infraction could land her in detention. I noticed that most of the teachers at that school are White. As I gained some understanding of the interaction between some educators and their students, it became clear to me that educating children should be a labor of love, not rigidity, and should be done keeping in mind the value of diversity.