Moving Beyond Black and White
By Gale Greenlee

Diversity. For years it's been a buzzword in American culture, touching every arena: from corporations to nonprofits, from churches, to families, to schools.

As a tutor, you may have noticed an increase in multicultural books in your school's library. Maybe while tutoring, you and your tutee compare your childhood in a rural town with his or her life in a bustling urban area. Perhaps when working in groups, you realize that boys and girls communicate and interact differently. Whatever the situation, we are all affected by diversity-even kids.

From an early age, children recognize and perceive differences in race, language, gender, and physical ability. Unfortunately, the messages society sends about these differences are often negative. They may be subtle, but children receive them nonetheless. Consequently, stigmas, stereotypes, and other negative attitudes about difference can affect a child's development and outlook on life. For children to develop healthy attitudes about difference and to learn to relate to others in a positive manner, they need role models-people who can teach them that difference is normal. This is where you come in.

By serving in diverse communities and working with diverse populations, you stand as much to gain as your tutee. Exposure to people with different experiences, opinions, beliefs, and worldviews can broaden your own perspective of the world and the people in it. Being receptive to learning from the experiences of others (whether your tutee, a parent, teacher, or national service member) can help you to establish trusting relationships with others. Through these connections, you have the opportunity to strengthen your own level of cultural competence (your ability not only to acknowledge, but to appreciate and respect the many differences others bring, and interact with comfort and ease).

What is Diversity?

Diversity is difference. In a country of many peoples from many lands, too often the term is taken to mean only "racial," "ethnic," or "cultural" diversity. While these are important aspects of diversity, they do not encompass the many dimensions of this concept. There are also differences in gender, economic status, physical ability, sexual orientation, age, religion, language, learning styles, and interests.

Diversity lies within all types of organizations, including the Corporation for National and Community Service. Through the America Reads Challenge, the Corporation engages diverse populations. Immigrants and native-born citizens, middle- and working-class people, seniors and college students are all united to help children learn to read. Within an individual program, there is diversity among staff, members, and volunteers. We also find diversity within the community we serve-among children, teachers, and schools, and among individuals of the same race, gender, economic background, and interest group.

As a result, most national service members, volunteers, and program staff participate in some sort of diversity training. We do this to: learn how our personal experiences shape us and affect our relationships with others; increase our ability to interact with and understand individuals from backgrounds different from our own; foster stronger connections with communities; and make our projects more effective.

Looking at Diversity

Across New York State, more than 40 AmeriCorps members with the Self-Advocacy Association of New York (SA) help people with disabilities become valued and independent members of their communities. SA is a nonprofit organization operated by individuals with developmental disabilities. Of its 40 members, 33 have disabilities. Inspired by their motto, "Our experience is our teacher," members work in schools to raise students' awareness about disabilities, to promote inclusive education among teachers, and to teach self-advocacy skills to students with disabilities.

"People with disabilities have an incredible story to tell and so much to give back to the community," says SA's Administrative Coordinator and AmeriCorps Project Director, Steve Holmes. "They are the best at changing people's attitudes about disabilities."

Holmes admits that SA members often face negative attitudes about people with disabilities. But, through their work in schools, they are slowly convincing students and adults alike that children with disabilities have many of the same needs, strengths, and desires as other kids.

On the other side of the country, in the heart of the Navajo reservation, sits the town of Round Rock, Arizona. It is a rural community, home to roughly 3,000 people, with an unemployment rate of nearly 60 percent. In addition to the chapter house (local government office), a trading post, and a school, there is Round Rock AmeriCorps.

At first this program may seem to lack diversity, since all 15 of its members are Navajo. However, as Program Director Monty Roessel points out, "We combine both Navajo culture and the best of Western culture (for example, technology) so that students learn to read and write and learn what it means to be Navajo. We help them be proud of who they are."

Most of the community's 200 students attend Arizona public schools and receive instruction similar to that of any other American school. AmeriCorps members tutor kids in English and Navajo, often using tools such as bilingual flashcards. They also participate in "cultural mentoring" in order to "re-teach" the values and traditions that are distinctively Navajo.

These members, who have made a commitment to remain on the reservation and improve their community, also recognize that elders have much to contribute. They encourage elders to volunteer, telling coyote stories to children and passing on the history behind traditions like the stick game. These intergenerational activities strengthen the community and reinforce the bonds between young and old.

On the East Coast, AmeriCorps members and Learn and Serve participants in Rhode Island tutor students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. They serve in urban centers that boast large immigrant populations, speaking 69 languages and representing Southeast Asia, West Africa, Cape Verde, and several Spanish-speaking countries.

Even with such great diversity, economic disparities are a more pressing challenge for those serving in the state's urban communities. Many members are from different economic backgrounds and are not accustomed to the conditions and challenges associated with poor, urban communities.

"In the communities in which we work, one in three children lives at or below the federal poverty line," says Nicole Boothman-Shepard, executive director of the Rhode Island State Commission. "Among the children supported by our initiatives, many are not reading at grade level. Their opportunities to develop academically have been obscured by barriers associated with poverty and school systems that are ill-equipped to deal with issues affecting the children outside of school."

Despite the cultural and economic differences between the tutors and tutees, Boothman-Shepard believes that connecting individuals from different backgrounds creates a fertile ground for learning. "The benefits of working in a diverse community are endless," she says. "Service providers are going to have their assumptions challenged, their perspectives broadened exponentially, and they will emerge as more thoughtful change agents in the community."

As these scenarios demonstrate, national service programs approach diversity in many ways and on many levels. While there are many challenges associated with serving in diverse communities, there are many benefits as well. As a tutor, you have a tremendous opportunity to positively influence a child's perception of difference, and to learn from another's point of view. By checking in with yourself (about your own perceptions of diversity, including biases and stereotypes), you are in a better position to understand the perspectives of others, especially your tutee(s).