I love human stew. It’s diverse, colorful, creative, and unique. I can hear you now. What in the world is human stew? To me, it’s our country, our neighborhoods, our towns, cities, and villages. More importantly, for me, it was my classroom when I was teaching middle school.

I was honored with the opportunity to teach in a gifted and talented program for sixteen years before I retired. My classroom was like a little Ellis Island. I had students from many different cultural backgrounds, and I loved it. Everyone brought their own set of exclusive traits and characteristics. It wasn’t just their cultural backgrounds either. There were so many varied learning styles, talents, accomplishments, and even some deficits to deal with at times. However, it was a delightfully charged and energetic place.

The name of the program was called ALPHA. That was an acronym for Alternative Learning Program for High Achievement. I have a friend, and I just happened to have had his two daughters in my class. He nicknamed the program Alternative Learning Program for the Hyperactive. Those kiddos were definitely full of energy! Many folks thought I had the “goody two shoes”. Not really the case. They preferred the floor to their desks, had to have time for movement, and absolutely conversation must be on the agenda.

My own little “Human Stew” of diverse students provided a challenge for me. Every week had to be planned with creativity in mind, time for open discussions, and allowances for them to blossom in their own way. I learned a lot from my multicultural world. My Chinese student had to flea his home land because his mom was expecting a baby girl. Jewish students always taught us about their holidays and faith. We enjoyed learning about Kwanza or any other holiday which broadened our minds. Diversity was a word I learned to appreciate.

In teaching, I got the grand opportunity of teaching how our country became a “Human Stew” through migration and immigration with studies of countries. We read historical fiction novels, and then we always had hands-on activities that were fun and creative.

What’s satisfying to me is the fact that we were all accepting of one another. There were names we couldn’t pronounce well, skin tones of every shade, backgrounds from afar and near, and families of all sizes. If my classroom had been a pot, it surely would have been a human stew. I quote Maya Angelou, “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity, there is beauty, and there is strength.” I truly believe the parents of my students accepted that.

I’m going to always take with me what I learned in being with my students, my human stew of a classroom. Watching them, learning from them, and being with them made me a better person. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and test of our civilization.”

Enjoy and learn from being in a “Human Stew”.