What is diversity?
The word diversity refers to something that is diverse, meaning that it has lots of different kinds or types. For example, you could have a box of candies with lots of diversity, meaning there are many different kinds of treats, like sour gummies, hard lemon-drops, licorice, and lollipops. You could listen to a radio station that plays really diverse music, and switches from classical to show-tunes to country to jazz. You could even have a really diverse wardrobe filled with everything from silly hats to dainty dresses!
The word "diversity" is often used to refer to people. Have you noticed that there are many different kinds of people in the world? Tall, short, curly-haired, straight-haired, young, old, out-going, shy, light-skinned, dark-skinned, athletic, artistic: our world is pretty diverse!
It's important to remember that being diverse helps make us all unique and special. Everybody deserves dignity and respect, and you should always treat other people the same way you'd want to be treated too. Be proud of the things that make you special, and appreciate the things that make others special too!
Exploration
There's lots of awesome diversity in the world, but it can be easy to see that people share certain similarities, too.
One thing that's important to remember is to avoid prejudiced ideas that group people together and make unfair claims about entire groups based on things that can't be proven. A good way to look out for prejudices is that lots of them begin with the word "ALL." Some examples might include:
"All girls hate sports.""All kids have bad manners.""All librarians are mean."
When you think about each statement, it's probably easy to think of an example that contradicts it (goes against it), and helps show you that it's a prejudiced and untrue idea.
Why do you think it's important to avoid making these kinds of assumptions about people? How can you help avoid prejudices, and treat everyone like an individual?
