On Tuesday of this week, we featured a video clip of Justin Trudeau making an emotional appeal for diversity in the classroom. Today we have an excerpt from a Scientific American article, "How Diversity Makes Us Smarter," which makes this same argument from a scientific point of view:
"Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious—you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts—but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So what is the upside?
"The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. This is not just wishful thinking: it is the conclusion I draw from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers."
Contributed by Zvia Dover
Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: |
"You'll find reassurance, resources, and strategic thinking to engage with in this anti-bias work." |
Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsPembroke Pines, FL, United States
To Francis Wardle:
Diversity is not only reserved to gender or race, and while I agree with the first point you make, I strongly disagree with the second.
Early childhood standards, frameworks, and best practices DO NOT dictate only one way to work with children.
Furthermore: by definition, Developmentally Appropriate Practices (guidelines/framework for best practices) cannot be inappropriate.
CSBC
Denver, CO, United States
Two quick points: 1) this obviously reinforces the desperate need to have more men in our programs, and more minority men; 2) are not early childhood standards, frameworks, and best practices anti-diversity, because they dictate that there is only one way to work with young children?
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