Earlier I wrote about a small suburban church in Georgia that has directly addressed the demographic and cultural change taking place in their community by integrating its newcomer ethnic groups into its church through the “social glue” of Christianity. In the process, the church is setting an example of how to assimilate new residents in 21st century America.

Along the same lines, the New York Times reports on another town in the same area of Georgia in which a new charter school is taking on these same challenges, by welcoming a diverse set of refugees from all around the world and bringing them together with American students from diverse social classes:

More than half the 380 students at this unusual school outside Atlanta are refugees from some 40 countries, many torn by war. The other students come from low-income families in Decatur, and from middle- and upper-middle-class families in the area who want to expose their children to other cultures.

Together they form an eclectic community of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, well-off and poor, of established local families and new arrivals who collectively speak about 50 languages.

The International Community School, which goes from kindergarten through sixth grade, began five years ago to address a pressing local problem: how to educate a flood of young refugees.

It has evolved into a laboratory for the art of getting along, a place that embraces the idea that people from different cultures and classes can benefit one other, even as administrators, teachers and parents acknowledge the many practical difficulties.

The article goes on to describe that not surprisingly, the school and its teachers face quite a range of challenges in bringing everyone together into a classroom of learning, from language barriers to raising money to helping new students overcoming the trauma of their refugee experiences.

Nonetheless, I find it genuinely heartwarming that, along with the Clarkston Baptist Church at the center of my previous post, the International Community School has chosen to address the challenges of globalization and transnationalism head on, rather than running away from it or denying that it will ever affect them.

Everyone involved with the International Community School -- administrators, teachers, assistants, volunteers, parents, and students -- deserves to be congratulated for what they are doing -- putting their convictions and words about living in peace in a diverse society into practice, into their own daily activities.

As the saying goes, well done is always better than well said. Keep up the good work, everyone.