and I will include them. Thanks!If you have a comment about these workshops or any other part of the AEOE
Spring Conference, please
and I will include them. Thanks!
Recently, I attended the AEOE Conference and participated in the Diversity Strand. During the Diversity Wrap-up Session, I thought of something I would like to share with the broader group. We were asked what we had learned as a consequence of participanting in the Strand. What I learned was not new to me, but was reinforced. And that is, that diversity is all around us; not just at special workshops. We must build relationships. Until we can establish relationships--expand our network of friends--we will not carry diversity into our lives. The true test at the Conference was to observe if people were eating with diverse faces in their groups, or did they finish the diversity session and fall back to their "old established" friends in the dining hall? All of us must be willing to step out of our "comfort zone" and take steps to incorporate those we consider as "different" into our lives. For as we do this, we will begin to learn that yes, there are some differences, but there are many more similarities than we first realized.
For more thoughts on diversity in environmental education (and elsewhere) see Diversity in Outdoor / Environmental Education