We as a society need to teach our children to be kind, to be accepting and understanding of others. Our programs are made up of children of different races, religions, cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds and abilities. Many children laugh and make fun of children with disabilities because they do not understand or are uncomfortable about the differences.
The month of October is recognized as Global Diversity Awareness Month. Let’s us use this opportunity by empowering our youngsters with education with one word a week, along with a fun activity, about diversity and inclusion to teach and foster acceptance.
Instructions
In The Connection each week during the month of October you will find a Word of the Week along with a short lesson plan and activity. Print out the information and spend a few minutes with your athletes to provoke conversation. Encourage your athletes to find commonalities and talk about the differences and how people with disabilities do not want to be defined by it. Avoid words like “sick”, “suffering from”, or “wrong”. The population simply wants to be treated like everyone else and you have a great platform to teach just that!