Diversity Forum Has Good Timing Teachers Conference Comes On Heels Of Judgment Against Area Racists

The timing is perfect for diversity to visit Coeur d’Alene, say organizers of this week’s Diversity in the Classroom conference at North Idaho College.

More than 200 educators from Idaho and Washington will be attending the Friday and Saturday forum to learn new ways to teach diversity and tolerance in their classrooms.

The conference is free and open to the public, not just to educators.

Although NIC, the Human Rights Education Foundation and the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations have planned the event for months, its timing is impeccable, organizer Tony Stewart said.

The conference falls on the heels of last week’s $6.3 million verdict against the Aryan Nations for attacking two Kootenai County residents in 1998.

Stewart serves on the boards of both the foundation and the task force and is NIC’s vice president for instruction.

“Diversity is here,” said Sandy Combo, the Plummer/Worley Joint School District’s speech and language pathologist. “These kids need to learn tolerance for each other. If they don’t do it early on, it just gets worse as adults.”

About 15 teachers and administrators from the district, which has a 50 percent American Indian student population, plan to attend.

Combo said diversity fits into every aspect of teaching.

Ramsey Elementary School teacher Paula Marano agrees. She is taking a year’s leave but will attend the conference to get new ideas on bringing diversity into the classroom.

Marano teaches her Coeur d’Alene third-graders world folklore and legends, which helps them relate to other cultures and time periods.

“It’s a global world we live in,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to share in all kinds of learning.”

Marano also remarked on the conference’s timing and said it is a good opportunity for area teachers to make a change.

“I think instead of reacting, we are called to respond,” she said about the Aryan verdict. “This is one way to respond, by learning and growing. It becomes a more peaceful approach through dialogue and discussion.”

Marano said diversity isn’t just about race and gender, but different learning styles.

Stewart said the conference, which includes lectures by the nation’s top diversity experts and hands-on workshops, is a gift to educators.

“We are a diverse society and we need to teach young people how to appreciate and celebrate our differences as a people,” he said. “Teachers are very eager to do this.”

Diversity wasn’t always taught in schools of education. It’s something that has bloomed in the past decade, Stewart said.

The conference is a chance to help teachers who never got diversity training to include it in their curriculum.

The Human Rights Education Foundation has raised about $20,000 to give grants to teachers who need extra money to buy the materials needed to teach diversity, foundation president Mary Lou Reed said.

“We want to supplement their ideas to make the teaching of diversity more interesting,” Reed said.

Teachers can apply for the grants later in the year.

This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Conference highlights

One of the event’s highlights is a 3:30 p.m. lecture Friday by Raymond Reyes, Gonzaga University’s associate vice president for diversity. Reyes is a former chief administrative officer for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

Loretta Ross, director of the Center for Human Rights Education in Atlanta, will speak Friday at 6 p.m.

Saturday’s events include an array of speeches and workshops on topics ranging from homosexual students to creating bully-free schools.

Omowale Akintunde, a University of Wyoming professor, will speak Saturday at 9 a.m. on “White Racism, White Privilege and White Supremacy.”

For more information contact Tony Stewart at (208) 769-3325.