My dying bias

My bias is quite extensive in my personal history, and has caused me to have some hard personal reflections recently.  I like to think that I have made some healthy progress as I sift through these dissonances.  It has a lot to do with what we have been discussing in class, and also with that struggle I've been having throughout my phlogg thread.  Basically, it revolves around the question of sameness- are we all the same?  It is impossible to doubt this when we look at the American creed of "all men are created equal."  At the same time however, those of us who are in a classroom/school environment realize that there are some students who show more talent in one area or opposed to his fellow students.  For example is a gifted student the same as a student who struggles and/or is not interested in learning, or is a student that comes from a rich family the same as a student that comes from a poor family- if only by virtue of differences in ability/interest, or economics?  Obviously, they are not the same in their contextual relationships.  Does this difference require different approaches?  Conventional thought, ironically is yes- look at special ed/regular ed/gifted classes.  Do understandings about these students require different existential valuations?  Not necessarily if we acknowledge that each student is equal with respect to his right to attain his dreams, have a life of his choice, have equal access to all that life can offer.  If this is the criteria, then sameness is relatively easy to understand; this is something which was not easy for me to understand.  By strict virtue of becoming a teacher, a helping professional, I found it necessary to modify my notions and implications of sameness- not so much because I had to (I did have to), but because in order to be a great teacher, it requires as much compassion and deep understanding as it does knowledge and passion.  This position is simply inconsistent with any valuations or implications which stem from notions of any substantial, essential differences in each of us as we move through this fog known as the human condition.