By CIA SIAB VAJ

The Mirror reporter

Starting this school year all juniors are required to take a social studies course that teaches life experiences such as Social Problems or a new course, American Diversity.

American Diversity instructor Paul Cibaric said a conversation between teachers began years ago about how to best address “the issues of bias, prejudice and social justice through a true ‘diversity’ course.” It was discovered that Mid-State offered a course that “matched what we were looking for” so after further planning and preparation, the new course was ready for SPASH students.

American Diversity is taught first semester. “This school year we decided to offer Diversity first semester so that students had a chance to experience the course before next year’s registration,” Elizabeth Anderson, a course instructor, said.

The purpose of this class is to teach students to have empathy and to see different experiences. “The difference between American Diversity and Social Problems is that we expand diversity rather than only spending one unit on it,” Anderson said.

“I want students to learn all the diversity around them, to learn the experiences of their peers,” Cibaric said.

Cibaric added that he knows he can’t change the minds of students but he wants them to be aware.

In additional to that goal there are also practical benefits. Students earning a C grade or higher can receive Mid-State credit.

Since this class is new there are always ways to change the course as time goes. “The class seems more vocabulary driven, rather than sharing experience,” Pajnag Chang, senior at SPASH said. “I wish this class would have people come in that have life-time experiences.” Chang added, “I can’t wait to see how this class will open the minds of students.”