According to the Oxford Dictionary, “A label is a classifying phrase or name applied to a person or thing, especially one that is inaccurate or restrictive.”

I remember back in first grade when our teacher separated our class into three reading groups. We were Eagles, Robins, and Crows. Now every 6-year-old kid in our class knew exactly the translation. Eagles were excellent readers. Robins were good and Crows, well, we knew who they were.

She challenged everyone to want to be an Eagle, but that just never seemed to become the result of effort.

When I began teaching high school, there were three groups of students. R Track were classified as academically the best. S track was average and T Track were presumably the slower learners. Eventually, the T Track label was dropped because the administration thought it stigmatized the group at the bottom, so those students were then loaded into the S Track group.

Further in my career I was given an Honors English class to teach. These were the top 20 ranked students in the 11th grade. One day I was approached by a student after he received a B+ on his essay. “Do you know I showed this paper to my Gifted and Talented teacher and she thought it should be an A.”

My response was “Then how about you take all your essays you write for me to her and she’ll give you all “As?” He was not happy with my sarcasm.

The next day I began class by asking how many were in the Gifted and Talented program. More than half raised their hands. “I have a question about the label,” I said. “Doesn’t everyone have a gift or a talent, even those who haven’t figured out what it is yet?”

Their stares meant they were wondering where I was going with this train of thought. The boy who wrote the B+ essay raised his hand. “We took a test and it proves that we are the smartest kids in the school. That’s why they call us Gifted and Talented.”

“I understand that,” I said, “but do you know there is another group of students who are higher and better than G and T? It’s the TBG group.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Touched By God,” I replied.

A moment of silence was followed by a laugh, then a whole room of laughter, except for the boy who didn’t appreciate my sarcasm again.

We talked about what labeling does to people.

There was a group of emotionally disturbed students in the school. Their program was called Project Alive. No one in the room including me could figure out that label. Then labels of religion were discussed.

“If you worship at church, are you a Catholic, a Protestant, a Baptist or whatever faith you call yourself or are you just someone who believes in God?” I asked.

“But we believe in God differently,” said one student.

“So does that mean there’s only one God or if you go to heaven, you’ll be directed to the Catholic God or to the Protestant God or whatever faith you practiced on Earth.”

“If there’s only one God, then why don’t we all worship the same God the same way?” asked another student.

Someone brought up political labels. I asked, “Why do we need Republican and Democrat labels and if so, why are there only two major political groups? Why can’t we just hear what each candidate wants to do for our country instead of knowing that they belong to a members only club that has a very specific agenda?”

We talked about all kinds of labeled groups from my Eagles’ readers, to motorcycle gangs, to sports teams, to even alcoholics and junkies. The consensus of the class was that sometimes labels are necessary for identification purposes, but many times, labels cause exclusivity – they are divisive and stereotypical.

Actress, singer, and songwriter, Raven-Symone recently said, “I want to be labeled a human who loves humans. I’m tired of being labeled. I’m an American. I’m not an African American.”

We are all identified by some sort of racial and cultural labels and at times, it seems that has been divisive when in reality, we are all just people. We are all Americans, but that gets lost in labeling the identification of groups.

Author Neil de Grasse Tyson wrote, “I came to resent labels of all kinds. What are they, if not intellectually lazy ways you know nothing about a person you never met?” We label someone as a lesbian or a Muslim or an immigrant and immediately a perception comes with it, one that slots each of us into tiny boxes. Oh, you’re a Catholic? No, I’m a person. Are you a Republican or Democrat? I’m neither. I’m an American. You were born a Hungarian? No, I was born a baby who grew up to be a person.

On a medical form, we are asked what race we are. The choices I’ve seen are Native American, Native Alaskan, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian, White or Other.

I understand these different labels are needed for genetic medical knowledge, but we all need to mark, “Other” when it comes to life itself. We are members of the human race. Until we drop the labels and see everyone is a human being, we will continue to be shoved into the tiny boxes and no one will ever know how alike we all really are.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com