Diversity, the Elephant in my Classroom

Sharon Bramlett-Solomon addressed the Phoenix Reynolds
Institute on diversity and the media.

     I have always thought of my school lacking diversity solely due to a lack of ethnic diversity.  I hadn't thought about the socioeconomic diversity, political diversity, religious diversity, intellectual diversity and sexual diversity that exist in my school.

     Today Sharon Bramlet-Solomon presented on diversity issues in the media and journalism classroom.  Initially we began a small group discussion regarding how diverse our school.  I had thought that my predominantly white school wasn't very diverse and that we do a mediocre job addressing it in our school.

     Until Bramlet-Solomon came over to our small group and started bringing up all of these other ideas ranging from the above mentioned diversity to the cliques that exist within our journalism staff.  I think I will try to implement Adrienne’s idea of a checklist to get a balanced coverage.   I think that once that becomes part of the workflow, my staff will start to see how our articles can be diversified and get out of that clique mentality.

     ‘Borrowing’ that idea will help me meet Bramlet-Solomon’s explication, expectation and evaluation direction to expand the diversity in our journalism staff.  I need to do a better job explaining to my students why inclusiveness matters, especially those who don’t see the differences that exist in our building.  

Brandon Michaud

Winnacunnet High School

Hampton, N.H.