Not different at all

Yesterday my nine year old son came home from school with someone else's backpack. The two were exactly the same so an easy mistake to make.

This morning at school we went looking for "Leo". Angus wasn't sure of his name, his class, even what year he was in. Tough gig.

We enlisted a member of staff (thanks Chris) and started vetting all the kids named Leo in the whole school. We found him (turns out his name is Leo), returned his backpack, Angus got his own back and all was right with the world.

As we were walking away from Leo I asked Angus: "Do you think it would have been easier to find him if you'd told us he is of Asian appearance?"

In reply, looking very confused, Angus asked "What do you mean?"

Now, my son can be pretty vague and maybe he just wasn't listening but, just in case, I decided not to delve into the subject of race and how Leo looks different to us because perhaps, to Angus, he doesn't. How cool would that be?.

It got me thinking. Maybe, with the true integration of people of different race, colour, religion, culture, gender and ability, into our schools and society, the kids of tomorrow won't discriminate.

Now that would be cool.