Learning To Interact With People Different Than You
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Last night I had to make a last minute run to the store right before it closed. As I was leaving I ran into a man that I once worked with long ago. We chatted for a few minutes in the parking lot before the cold crept into our coats. As I was driving home it struck me that him and I were very different people, nearly complete opposites. Had we first met in high school we would have most likely never spoken to each other. In fact even though I went to a very small school in a very small town there are many students that I graduated with that I most likely never said more than a polite hello in passing to.
We became friends when the summer after graduation and before heading off to college we both worked the evening shift at a local fast food place. It was an odd friendship, one that grew out of necessity. When you are going to be spending 8+ hours a day with someone you have to learn how to make friends, or at least how to be friendly. We laughed and joked as we worked, shared meals if our breaks happened together, and a few times he gave me a ride home from work since I did not have a car.
There we were, total opposites in social class. He was upper class, for our area, I was lower. He played football, was given a new car on his 16th birthday, and only dated the girls who looked like Barbie dolls. I skipped the pep rallies, bought a clunker for $100 that died within a year, and was the farthest from looking like a doll that you could get. And yet for 3 months of summer vacation we were friends, close enough that years later when we bumped into each other in a store parking lot we immediately recognised each other and hugged.
I suppose my point is to question the belief that children must go to school to learn how to interact with people different from them. For all my years in school you only interacted with people who were different if a teacher forced you to by assigning you to a project together. And then it was as brief as possible and you quickly forgot each other once it was done. You had your clique and dared not stray too far from the accepted boundaries (wasn’t that the sub-plot in the High School Musical movie?). There were just some people you would never talk to, and some who would never talk to you. Had my friend and I met in high school I probably would have been that chick with the bad hair who blocks his locker and he the jock who thinks he’s so cool even though he’s not. Luckily we met outside the walls of the school, in the real world where we were free from the social pressures and forged by actually having to work together for an extended period of time.


I think we’ve all been there. Doing something mundane and ordinary when suddenly it becomes a teaching moment for our kids. Who knew that every moment of your day is an opportunity for kids to learn? When you break free from the “learning only happens from 8-3″ mindset the number of moments that we see as educational blossoms. Here are a few of the fun ones we’ve had lately.


I’ve talked before about 
In some areas homeschoolers are alowed to join in the local schols sports teams and in other areas homeschoolers are creating their own teams in order to play sports. For many children when either of these two options are available they are thrilled. But what if the parents aren’t?


