New Kindergarten Teaches Children From Immigrant Families — And The Results Are Heartwarming

With children in the classroom who speak 40 different languages, this kindergarten in Toronto is meeting an underserved need for immigrants from all over the world.

All of the more than 600 students are between 4 and 6 years old, and the tots speak almost no English. That doesn't scare the teachers at Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy. In fact, it is considered a benefit to the public school that proudly displays its motto—“Diversity Our Strength”.

The staff here has developed specialized programs unknown to most kindergartens in Canada. There’s a science and technology program, “maker space” where children do projects like making still movies of homemade birds in flight. They sketch paintings with graphite pencils in a bright hallway that’s been transformed into an artists’ studio.

“We’re a rainbow made of children, we’re a family singing songs,” their voices rose and fell in a civil rights song from the movie “Billy Jack”, but tweaked for the school. “There is nothing that can stop us, rainbow love is much too strong.”