Ah, September. The blackberries are dying on the vine, the mornings are darker and cooler, and faculty meetings fill the calendar.

At one of those back-to-school confabs, like always, we were prepped on our newest students, most of whom were born in 2005. Here is the “Generation Z” snapshot for your viewing pleasure.

In my “Multicultural Education” course, I plan to use this graphic on day one to illustrate what may be the most important concept of the entire course.

In small groups, I’m going to ask my students to assess what the PLU faculty and staff that crafted this slide got right and what they got wrong. When they report out, we’ll try to synthesize for the class overall. My assumption is that they got about half right and half wrong and that the overall list doesn’t apply to any particular student or small group.

Which is the point I want the students to remember.

More specifically, I want them to remember that whenever we find ourselves in diverse settings our challenge is to understand patterns and themes within groups while simultaneously acknowledging vast individual differences. The closely related point is that no one wants to be reduced to their group identities, everyone wants others to honor their individuality. Therefore, since we want that, we should do that for others.

Class dismissed. Don’t forget the homework.