UMPS Students Share Priceless Gifts on 2012 Diversity Day

Students of the learned a little bit more about themselves, as well as their classmates, at the school’s Jan. 12 Diversity Day.

All 716 kindergarten through second-grade primary school students participated in the annual event. The event focused on five items the students brought with them. The items were brought in a box or a bag, and called a “Me Kit.”

Each item held a personal significance for the student, which they happily shared with their classmates and teachers.

UMPS second-grade student Cameryn Jackson opened his Me Kit to reveal a football jersey.

“It’s important to me, because it reminds me of my family," Cameryn said, proudly pointing to the number 28 purple and gold uniform.

“When my dad asked me what number I’d like, I said the same number as my brother,” Cameryn said.

He explained that his older brother had also worn a number 28 uniform, and added that his grandfather had also played for the youth club sports organization.

Cameryn’s Me Kit was a converted shoebox, decorated with gray construction paper and his name. Sitting in small groups of students with an adult moderator, a female classmate of Cameryn’s chose a pink shoebox and decorated her Me Kit with little animal stickers and cutout photos of her family.

“I think it’s really cool how you all make these boxes as different as you are,” Tina Landis, UMPS second-grade teacher, told her group of students.

She said each Me Kit reveals something about the students they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to share otherwise.

“Today’s all about learning our differences and celebrating them,” Landis said.

She added that the Diversity Day celebrates what the students also have in common.

“Two of our guys found out that they both like Legos,” Landis said with a smile. “It’s a fun day.”

The UMPS Diversity Day is part of the annual multi-school diversity awareness campaign, which includes the Upper Moreland Middle School's , which takes place on Jan. 13.

Throughout UMPS Diversity Day, the students, sitting in the school’s large multi-purpose room, participate in the half-hour Me Kit show-and-tell sessions.

According to event organizer, UMPS guidance counselor , the students often sit in groups where they socialize with other students that aren’t necessarily in their class or even in their grade.

“It’s making them aware that differences do exist,” Brunner said. “And, it doesn’t hold us back to be who we are.”

She said that while the school teaches about diversity in the classroom throughout the year, Diversity Day is effective in personalizing and bringing home the point.

“It’s so important to start early,” Brunner said. “Our primary school is open-hearted and open-minded.”

According to Brunner, the activity on Diversity Day alternates every three years. She said next year, the students will be asked to bring in a family photo album, in which the students will include pictures of their family taken with a camera or that they draw themselves. On the following year, the school will invite guest speakers to talk more about diversity.

[Updated 3:20 p.m.] Brunner adds that the development of Diversity Day is a team-effort working with faculty and staff of the Primary school each year.

The idea behind the Me Kits coming in decorated boxes and bags, Brunner said, is to help give the students the idea that their individual stories are very much like presents – presents that could be freely shared with and learned from one another.

“It is to help remind them that we are all a gift,” Brunner said. “If only we can hold on to that.”