Ask the Experts: Tina Schneider (2)

Q: How does fostering a strong, diverse community enhance children’s learning and development?

A: “When you have a diverse community, you are more clearly representing the actual world around you,” says Tina Schneider, executive director of Cleveland Montessori School. “We represent various economic levels, religions, cultures, neighborhoods. It really does represent people that you have to live and work with as you grow into adulthood. We try to be respectful of everyone’s background and share those things in the classroom so [the students] are not just seeing that there’s one way, but there are multiple ways. They collaborate with other students who, if they were just in their neighborhood, they might not necessarily have the opportunity to get to know. They have to compromise and learn all those skills about how you function within a greater community and figure out what your role in that is.”