Our Corner of the World

   One of the best things about my son’s preschool is the people.  He’s got three (yes, three!) great teachers who have been working together for quite some time.  They’ve developed a short-hand between them, and they all work to meet the needs of each student.  And, there’s the student population.  This past session, my son was never in a class with more than ten students.

   And let me be up-front and honest, I’m not color-blind.  I think I’m even more mindful of skin color because my son is mixed.  I am white, and his father is African-American.  I want my son to feel comfortable in his own skin, never singled out for being different or because his parents look different.  We’ve already heard comments - “He’s so light,”  “I thought he’d be darker.”  As long as my child is healthy and happy, his skin color is not a big concern to me.

   And thankfully, at his preschool, it’s not a concern there either.  He’s sitting in a little secure microcosm of the world.  One of his classmates recently returned from a family trip to India.  Another, left for the winter holidays early for their trip back home to Australia.  And still another missed the winter performance because of his family trip to Mexico.  One classmate is also mixed - with an Asian daddy and a white mommy.  

   I am grateful that my son is growing up thinking it’s all perfectly normal.  He sees, and doesn’t seem to care one way or the other, that people dress differently and use words that sound different.  His babysitter is Indonesian.  Our neighbors around the corner are Orthodox Jews.  Our neighbors two doors down are Korean.  

   And it’s all okay.  That’s the way the world is, that’s the way our world should be.  My son has never once commented on the differences; he only seems to notice the similarities.