After working together to fill the cement mixer truck with sand, Theo G. and Dashiell worked on emptying it out into a mound. First they tilted the cement mixer and allowed gravity to bring the sand out. To reach the remaining sand, they began to reach their hands and arms into the belly of the cement mixer.

Theo G.: Our skins are together. Guess what? Mommy has two different types of skin. My Mommy has two different types of skin and I say she’s colorful.

It is one of our strategies in the West Wing to work as a classroom community on, “Celebrating commonalities and differences in our lives.” In this brief exchange, the differences between Theo G.’s and Dashiell’s skin tones and the differences between Theo G. and his mother’s skin tones were simply that – differences. In a New School-West culture of “being different is normal”, differences can be celebrated as seamlessly as commonalities.  -Teacher Jess