In the pursuit of awareness and acceptance, students have lost sight of the people who are right in front of them: their peers. By accepting those who are different, students have only scratched the surface regarding differences in their own community. Differences are not asked about or discussed on a personal level.

This is because a rigorously accepting cultures condemns ignorance to the point that students are too afraid to ask people about their identities in the case they offend them. However, it is better to admit to not knowing something and ask than never understand a vital part of someone’s identity.

St. Paul Academy and Summit School fosters a culture of awareness: students are taught about many cultures, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, gender pronouns, and more to create a better understanding of the world and avoid offending peers.

In general, students expect to be told or pick up what is or isn’t politically or factually correct. But, unless they’ve experienced being a part of a community apart from their own, there is no doubt that there are things they simply can’t find out except by asking someone in that community.

Every culture in this world is so multifaceted that there is no way everything can be taught in a book or a single news article. According to the Pew Research Center, there are nearly 41,000 distinct Christian denominations worldwide, yet, within two years of World History, only around ten are mentioned. Similarly, under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are currently 566 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, yet the average student knows very little about Native American cultures. Though there is no way to learn all aspects of every culture, or other societal variation, students must still make an effort to learn about the people in their own community.

Students try so hard to be politically correct by not saying anything at all and that hinders them from discovering important aspects of their peers and the community. Due to the infeasibility of teaching every student everything there is to know about cultures and differences, misconceptions and broad generalizations still exist. Ideally, everyone is infinitely worldly and knowledgeable, but that is simply not the case. In order to get to know peers personally, one must ask the messy questions.

It may seem difficult to avoid sounding ignorant or prejudiced, but students should try asking open ended questions. Meanwhile, students who are asked these questions should give peers the benefit of the doubt and assume these questions are asked with complete sincerity. Seemingly ignorant and assumptive questions that are answered are better than misguided assumptions that are never addressed.

In some cases, there is no good way to ask certain question that may seem just a bit too messy. However, in a community that strives to be a place that celebrates and welcomes diversity, those types of difficult questions should be the ones that are embraced and tackled collectively and wholeheartedly. And through this process of asking and answering hard questions, students can get to better know their peers, especially their identities and experiences.

Ask someone what their ethnicity is. Then ask them about their culture. Ask someone about their sexuality. Ask someone what their religion is. Ask about their family. Ask them about their experiences. But, most of all, ask them about what has made them the person they are today.