It's funny. As a kid I would never have done anything like choir, it just wasn't cool. I can remember when I met my first "black" kid, and it was when I was in high school. I never saw a turban until I moved to Alberta in the late 70's.
My son has grown up with all of these things. I remember him trying to describe a girl at his school, and he was having a difficult time trying to tell us what she looked like. He was going around and around saying "you know", she was at this concert, or that event. Come to find out she was an African American girl, but it never occurred to him to describe her in those terms. Living in a University town has been a boon in that regard as well. The town swells from a population of around 4,000 to well over 7,000 when university is in. 12% of the town's residents were born outside of Canada.
The kids in the choir are almost without exception, some of the nicest kids you would hope to meet. Absolutely non-judgmental, supportive, and more like a huge extended family. None of them are afraid to "put themselves out there", and I am sure these qualities will only help them later in life to be the kind of citizens we all hope our kids will become.
