The easiest way to manage cultural and individual differences is if there is a child from a varying ethnicity or a child with a disability in the class or school; this can simply be treated as normal and children under six will accept this as normal—just different.

The cultural areas of a 2.5-6+ environment offers many opportunities to speak about different cultures, different ways of “doing life”, different ways of satisfying our human needs.  Through the geography folders we can have pictures of various ways people satisfy their physical and spiritual needs.  We can have books in our “reading corner” showing differences in abilities, differences in family structures, differences  in clothing, food, transportation, houses, music, art—all aspects of human life.  When these are presented to children under the age of six, differences can be noted, but no judgment is made about the differences.  They are simply a variety of ways that humans use to satisfy their needs. 

For children over six, the questions about differences can arise or can be stimulated by discussions around geography, history, biology, etc. Differences do not need to be pointed out but if questions arise in the children, discussions can follow about how interesting that, e.g., in some cultures people eat with their fingers, in others people eat with two small ‘sticks and in others with silverware—but everyone has a way to feed themselves.

It is this way of respecting cultural differences that allows children to see differences as simply that—different ways of satisfying our physical and spiritual needs.