As I listen (and I do listen) to student conversation in class and in the hallway, I hear many statements that reflect intolerance, bias, stereotyping, and a lack of respectful language.  We all have biases but at a school like Pershing with the great diversity that exists among students I think that we are missing an opportunity to get past the misinformation that creates bias.  When we really get to know people who we perceive as being different from us, we start to recognize our commonalities.  While we are all different in some respects, when we allow ourselves to get past stereotypes and misconceptions we often discover that the differences aren’t so great.  I hope that we can all learn a little about ourselves and get to know others a little better by working and getting to know different people.