Integration: The New Tolerance

For the longest time we taught kids to tolerate others. Those that looked different then them, had different customs and traditions, and even those that did not share their sexual orientation. For the longest time parents, teachers, civic leaders all preached tolerance of others that were not like us. Why? Why did we separate ourselves from others with that nasty word? A few years ago it occurred to me that tolerating someone that was different then myself meant that I was putting up with them instead of embracing their differences. Why should someone different from myself be "tolerated" when I am just as different to them as they are to me? Last year I stopped using that word. I decided that tolerance did not mean acceptance, and ultimately that is what we should be doing. Accepting everyone for who they are and what they believe.

Today I find myself in a similar situation, but this time the password is..."integration." Integrated means to bring together elements that are normally separate. Is that how we see technology and education? Two separate elements that should be merged together. How will we every reach our students, who spend the majority of their day using technology, if we view technology as a foreign element in our classrooms.

We have to start looking at technology as the cornerstone of our classroom, not the portable classroom we ship in to accommodate an increase in enrollment. Technology is a cog in the machine that is our classroom. Technology has to be included in the blueprint of our courses. Technology isn't a class, instead it should be a vital element of all that we do. The sooner we toss away this idea of integrating elements that aren't normally in the classroom, the sooner we can get started on laying a foundation for our future classroom. I for one will not "tolerate" this notion of "integration" anymore, I encourage you to do so as well.