Watching the White House wage war on diversity, I’m struck by the ferocity of the campaign. What is it about the idea of diversity that inspires such fear and loathing and lust for homogeneity? I’m reminded of the metaphor of America, the “melting pot” — turning rough ore into sleek sheets of smooth metal — that dominated the dreams of my grandparents’ immigrant generation. They strove to blur the outlines of their cultural inheritance in their rush to become “real Americans.”

Over the past 50 years as an educator in Hawaii, I’ve learned to love the alternate metaphor of the “mixed plate” to describe a nourishing cultural landscape, and to recognize the value of teaching that attitude toward diversity in our classrooms.

Early in my assignment to a rural public school on Hawaiian homestead land, I recognized the importance of helping my students to know and value their cultural identity. I wanted to reinforce the pride and sense of self-worth that could come with a recognition of the cultural self. I looked for pathways to tap into the not-so-deeply-buried cultural memory, and reinfuse the spirit of those amazing, accomplished ancestors.

The big lesson plan was to learn what it means to be Hawaiian, and beyond that, what culture itself means. The children readily caught on to the big idea. They knew and could articulate this understanding: Culture is all the ways that people act, the things they do, like dance, make music, eat certain foods, the language they speak, the ideas they have, the things they believe and love, that make them know they belong to one another.

“The Peopling of Hawai‘i” was the “unit” that lasted all year via “culture sharing” presentations. When cultural representatives came to our class to share, I asked each one to tell us something about growing up in their culture: holidays, celebrations you remember, songs or dances, a few words of your language, special activities you did and how you did them, the most important “lessons” your family taught you, and special foods you ate. (Food was always shared at these times. The taste of a culture is one of its most memorable attributes!) On each of these culture celebration days, we recognized and honored anyone in the classroom who had that “part” in their ancestry (they got to sit up front, be first to eat, etc.)

The mixed-plate collage project is a favorite lesson plan on my team’s GrowingPonoSchools website today. Its purpose is to help students develop deeper understandings about each other, in order to build a strong learning community. The project recognizes Hawaii in the 21st century as a place known for a rich tapestry of cultures: those brought by the first voyaging Polynesians, those brought by the plantation workers, and those brought by new immigrants from around the world today.

The learning activity invites students to explore layers of culture— “home,” “host,” “local” and “global” — to learn more about themselves as well as their community. Exploring layers of culture helps learners appreciate the wide variety of unique differences we all have and the many similarities we all share at the same time. We are all members of a colorful human family.

That appreciation of diversity is a good thing, a vital understanding for a classroom or any other community with a common purpose. The welcoming of immigrants and their cultural diversity is what made America great in the last century. The fostering of respect and appreciation for that diversity is what will continue to make America great in the future. That’s a lesson we must keep teaching.

Elly Tepper is a consultant educator and Ulu A‘e Transitions Grant Team member.