Diversity where there is none...

I've worked in the early childhood field for eight years, and have had only a handful of children who are of African, African American, or Haitian decent. Most of those children I have had are children who have been adopted by Caucasion families. In our neighborhood of 300+ plus people, we have one family of Haitian decent, several families of Hispanic decent, and a couple families of Asian decent. I'm quite excited that my program this year is actually more diverse than it was last--I actually have two children of Hispanic decent, one child who is 1/4 Korean, and another who is 1/2 Japanese. Compared to last year, when the vast majority of my children had blonde hair & blue eyes! In addition, I am one of the few programs in a highly religious community that is not religion based, so I have greater diversity there as well (about 50% of my students are not of the dominant religion). I've tried to incorporate interculturalism (yes, I'm making up words...) in my room wherever possible, including racial and ethnic backgrounds of those not included in the class. I've had Native American speakers cook fry bread, African American storytellers, etc. We celebrated Cinco De Mayo & the Chinese New Year. Our dolls, food, puzzles, books, dress up clothes, etc. represent materials from a variety of cultures. I feel like this is more of a superficial representation of ethics and cultures, but at least it is exposing the children to other possibilities. I like what Leeann said about considering every member of your classroom as a diverse individual. We do incorporate family traditions throughout the year & encourage parents to participate in becoming part of our classroom community. On a side note, how do you accommodate those who do not celebrate, such as members of the Jehovah Witness faith? Or, how do you cope with families who have significantly different beliefs? For example, I would happily include a family whose make up included two moms or two dads (not that it will ever happen in this community!!!), but I can guarantee I would loose many of my current clients, some of whom have placed their children in my program to get away from liberal public school systems.