Hate is often bred from misunderstandings or ignorance, a lack of exposure to people, beliefs, ideas — and history — that is different than ours.

Quite frankly, that is one of our weaknesses, here in Northeast Michigan. We have much to be proud of here, but we are a mostly homogenous community.

As The News reported last year in its “Changing Face of Alpena” series, our region is becoming more diverse. And, while some of our new neighbors of color said they’d had mostly positive experiences here, not all experiences were good.

That’s why we’re happy to see, as News staff writer Crystal Nelson reported recently, our local school districts reviewing their curricula to make sure the social studies and history they teach is as inclusive as can be.

The more students are exposed to people who are different from them, the greater their understanding can be, and the more likely they are to be good neighbors.

Plus, there are some 420 minority students enrolled in Northeast Michigan school districts.

Those students of all colors deserve to learn more of their own history.

We support school leaders’ efforts to expand their curricula to be more inclusive, and we hope parents will support those efforts, too.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)