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Diversity
“Victoria
is one of the most culturally diverse and harmonious societies
in the world.”
Well, that’s what the people at Multicultural Victoria
say, anyway. It is true, though, that a quarter of all the
people living in Victoria today were born overseas. That’s
one million people! You want more facts? No?!! Well here are
some anyway. In this harmonious state of Victoria, we come
from 208 different countries and speak 151 different languages.
In fact, almost 20 per cent of us come from countries where
English is not the main spoken language, and that’s
the highest proportion of any state or territory in Australia.
Take that South Australia! (No offence intended to South Australians).
We
don’t know what your school is like - it might be a
bustling cross-section of Australian society with people from
all backgrounds, or the majority of people may be from one
ethnicity.
Either way your school undoubtedly has some sort of policy
to encourage diversity and/or discourage prejudice,
harassment of people because of their skin colour or their
sexuality or whatever (see the bullying
section). If they don’t, then they should (there
are laws against it you know – see the ‘law
and government’ part of this section). If they do
have these policies, then what are they? Did you get to have
a say in how they were written? They’re about you, and
your rights and responsibilities [see the rights
and responsibilities section].
Not
only is your school likely to have policies and practices
(like a “harmony day”, or “anti-racism initiatives”),
but they might have a statement along the lines of “Sanity
College is committed to providing a safe and secure learning
environment where the individual needs of all children are
met regardless of gender,
disability, culture
or socio-economic
circumstances”. What they’re talking about here
is diversity.
Aside
from your school, the government has heaps of policies on
the things we’re talking about here. Whether it’s
gender, multiculturalism
or sexuality, you’ll
find more policies, regulations and guidelines than you can
shake a stick at (whatever that means).
For
now, let’s just look at a few case studies focusing
on the areas of ethnicity
(where you’re ‘from’), gender
(you know, male and female – you may have noticed they’re
different), and sexuality
(we’re talking gay and lesbian here).
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