Get Ready for National Multicultural Diversity Day

For more than a decade, educators have celebrated National Multicultural Diversity Day (NMDD) on the third Monday in October. Created by Cleorah Scruggs, a fourth-grade teacher in Flint, Michigan, the day was adopted as a national event by the 1993 Representative Assembly to "increase awareness of the tremendous need to celebrate our diversity collectively."

You can get involved just by being creative. Start by sharing cultural information with your class about yourself, then introduce students to multicultural issues by inviting a local expert to talk about diversity. You can also sing songs that celebrate diversity and ask students to bring in items or food representative of their ethnic heritage to share with classmates.

To help educators share ways to celebrate diversity year round, NEA sponsors an electronic discussion board at www.nea.org/cs/forum.jspa?forumID=55.