December 14, 2011
Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
-St. Francis of Assisi
In his keynote presentation at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference for Early Childhood Development, held from 8 to 10 November 2011, in Singapore, Robert Myers published the following observations about diversity from an unpublished manuscript, “Diversity and Coherence” by Peter Moss:
“The value of diversity lies in its recognition and welcoming of otherness, its resistance to any form of referential norm, and its insistence that there are alternative perspectives, other ways of understanding the world and practicing life. It creates space for the construction of individual, group and local values, identities, and knowledge. In education, valuing diversity enables a pedagogy of difference, the creation of new knowledge, and new thought through the provocation of an encounter with otherness. It is a profoundl y democratic value, welcoming participation of all on their own terms and with their own perspectives.
“The risk of diversity lies in its possible reduction to a disconnected individualism or a group self-interest, which has no room for interdependence and relationships of responsibility for others, and no interest in the common good. A further risk arises from reducing opportunities for encounter, if different groups withdraw, or are pushed back into, their territory and selective or segregated institutions. Then diversity is a recipe for endless reproduction of values, identity, and culture.”
