Even if a teacher speaks ‘American’ English it does not mean they are a better teacher. Teachers get a lot of flack for a lot of good reasons. The things they shouldn’t get flak for is having a certain sexual preference, gender, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation or nationality.  I have a teacher now who constantly babbles and figures things out as the class in session. I had a math teacher my freshman year who needed to be corrected by students two to three times, each class. It was ‘the blind leading the blind’ and had little to do with any certain attribute.  I had a teacher sophomore year who taught biology flawlessly. He was from India and had a very thick accent. Sometimes, fellow classmates and I had to stay late and/or clarify statements. I learned more in his weekly lab than I did in lecture with an American. Kyle Alston, a senior in engineering, said “I had a professor; an American…he had a medical condition which caused him to slur his words. It was kind of hard to understand where the lesson was going.” ”Sometimes [the American] would just read to himself, aloud in class. I didn’t [ever] know what he was doing…Was he mumbling to himself..? Going over the answers..?” he said. Holly Greer, a senior in public and interpersonal communication, said, “Certain times I did have a hard time learning [from a teacher with a different background,] other times it was interesting.” According to Greer, teachers from a different background make sense, for certain classes. “My Italian teacher was interesting, if [the subject] were math, it would be harder to learn.” Alston said, “I had a teacher for calc. 2, he was an Asian guy. He would explain things clearly but he would have to explain things more and more … It was a little process.”  ”Culture effects word choice and diction … [My Asian teacher] had such a strong accent and his writing was terrible,” he said. America is the most ethnically diverse nation on the planet and accounts for only about 305 million of the global population. This means, several billion people on this planet are not Americans. Roughly 17 percent (1,143 million) of the world’s population speaks English.  If students take the time to understand a topic of study, they can eventually master a topic despite minor inconveniences like language barriers. In a world connected on a global scale it is best to embrace diversity unless, of course, you have Nazi-like tendencies. Differing sexual preference, gender, ethnicity, religion, political affiliations and all other differences are commonplace. ”If you could understand my [Asian] calc teacher’s notes, you were fine,” Alston said. 

America doesn’t have a national language and I value a diverse faculty. I am glad faculty diversity is among the highest in N.C. because it adds an additional dimension to student education. A diverse faculty is exactly what students need to prepare for life after college.