Reflection from Laura Richdale, teacher

I have recently requested reflections from people involved with the It's OK to be Different program. I am looking for responses from teachers, parents and administrators. The first is from Laura Richdale, teacher and friend.

"The It's OK to be Different program became a support that I used throughout my teaching days. Whenever a child made a negative remark aimed at a classmate or friend (present or not) I would wait to see if another nearby child would react in a positive manner. The more experience the class had had with the program, the more often I would overhear someone speak up on his/her own, to offer a solution to the conflict. If not, I would simply begin a discussion about the time they focused on understanding then accepting differences in others. I would try to jog their memories, getting them to relate what had just transpired to what they had experienced when talking about respecting personal feelings. More often than not, the children were able to connect the events and instead of the incident at hand taking on a very negative tone, everyone would see that we all need to remind each other that it is indeed okay to be different.