Hey that's me!

Isn't it nice when you see something about yourself reflected back at you? It can be something like a character you relate to in your favourite Television show or book makes that story more relatable for you. Maybe seeing someone struggling with something that you are struggling with helps you to cope. We are drawn to things that we can see parts of ourselves in. Whether we mean to or not. Advertisers know this, it is one of the most basic tricks they use. When is the last time you have seen an advertisement for a children's toy, where an elderly man is the only one playing with it? What about an ad for a retirement home exclusively featuring children? They even gear commercials to gender. Barbies feature girls playing with them while the Nerf dart guns usually feature boys. It is because they know who they want to advertise to and they know that like attracts like. Why then do we not use this practice in education?

Why don't we try to include resources that reflect our students? Stories about children from different parts of the world to meet our diverse student body? Posters and pictures around the room that reflect back what our class actually looks like? If you were to walk into most classrooms from when I was a child you would think that everyone was a white able bodied person. But what about the student who had to use a wheel chair? Or the student who immigrated from Japan? If all of the stories, all of the resources around the room depict white, able bodied people, how can we be surprised if they don't feel like the classroom is a place where they are welcome. Diversity in resources, reflects diversity in classrooms. It is well known, even by children's advertisers that reflection creates connection and what should a teacher be trying to do, if not be trying to establish connections.

This goes for children learning to read too. If I provide my class, strictly with books featuring girls as the main character, quite a few of the boys will opt not to read. The same is true if you reverse the genders and provide only books with boy main characters. Now the student who immigrated from the Middle East may not mind reading a book with an all white cast of characters, but think about how much richer and more meaningful the connection would be if it is a a story about a boy who immigrates to Canada from the middle east. Suddenly he can make much stronger, more authentic connections with the main character. His thoughts and reflections are going to be richer and he is, plainly, going to be more interested in reading that book. I guess all that is to say that education is a lot like fishing with a net. You can use a salmon shaped net and catch only salmon, or use a big net to catch all kinds of fish.