Lessons I learn from Children

In "Walking Trees" Ralph mentions that he learns about the students' personal lives through his writing conferences. This helps him to build personal relationships with the students and gives meaning to his job. We, as teachers, can learn that children experience some of the same drama, hurt, pain, and disappointment that adults experience.
For the past two weeks, my quietest student has been frantically crying when she gets dropped off in the mornings and at random times during the day. Finally on Friday, the mother told me that the girl had not seen her father in two weeks. She does not eat at home or sleep. Unfortunately, mom and dad are no longer together, but this is just an example of how everyday marital issues can affect the children.
Children will love you without bias and they will follow you without reason. Keeping this in mind we, as teachers, can also learn how develop a genuine respect and interest for all people. Looking past their physical appearances, pet peeves, and so on. I am not saying that this is an easy skill, but any lesson learned is a lesson worth teaching.

How 2 expand my knowledge on racial/ethinc groups

There was always a mix of cultures in my public/private school upbringing. So from early on I was always in touch with other racial/ethnic groups. The teachers in grammar school and my peers since high school have had a different ethnicity from me. I am open to increasing my knowledge about different racial groups by making a commitment to watch different ethnic broadcasts and listen to radio stations dedicated to specific ethnic groups. (Although I may not understand the language).
My experience: During my undergrad years I would take the bus to Lakewood in the morning and see groups of men just standing around the Freehold bus station. Some were being picked up in trucks and others just waiting around (mostly) dressed in cowboy hats, cowboy shoes and smoking cigarettes. Bus opertors would often yell out the left side window to ask people to move out of the way. It made me feel uncomfortable because I had no clue as to why they were just standing around the station in the way of bus traffic so frequently. Bus operators often made comments about that section of Freehold. It was considered Little Mexico. I did not totally believe them, but seeing them everyday made it partially true. According to city-data.com http://www.city-data.com/city/Freehold-New-Jersey.html, the Hispanic population is the second largest population in Freehold, NJ. I have to admit for sometime after that, at least until I graduated in 2005, when I saw a short man wearing cowboy boots, smoking a cigar and standing around, I automatically thought he was from Little Mexico in Freehold.