There's a recent thread on the Russian Adoption Forum that touches on the school and preschool topic I have started exploring: Do you tell the school that your child was adopted from Russia?

It seems that the mother who started the thread was afraid that the school would use the information to put a negative label on her child. You know, the "all kids from Russia are …." nonsense that you get from the truly clueless.

My first thought, when reading this was, if the school is pre-disposed to having a negative attitude about a child because of some fact about him or her, why would you put a child there? Whether that fact is that he or she is adopted, short, hyper-active or a twin--if a school can't welcome your child with open arms, what kind of experience will it be for your child?

Of course, I wish I listened to my own advice sometimes. My little guy's first preschool teacher, as I have written, had a terrible prejudice against children who did not speak English as their primary language, and I never, ever should have put him in that class. But I kept thinking as a (hopefully) rational adult that, prejudice is born of fear and that once the teacher gets over her fear of being able to teach a child that may need a different communication style, all will be grand. Nope.

Yes, I have shared the fact that my kids were born in Russia with their preschools and schools. Like one of the posters who responded to the original question, I know that the teachers my kids have now want to be as informed as possible about their lives, because it will make it easier for these teachers to reach them. When I traveled to Russia for my second adoption, I made sure that my older son's teachers knew that he might be upset because Mom was away.

But my kids also enjoy sharing their heritage. When school kids in my town are asked to show where they were born, most point to the same spot on the globe. My kids get to give the earth a spin and point to two places on the other side of the planet, and it gives them a big charge.