A crowd of originals

For many years, I taught large (300+) introductory first-year psychology classes. Classes were composed of diverse students. Some were there as future psychology majors, others were looking for an “easy” elective. Some were hardworking students seeking an A+, while others simply aimed to pass. Some students were athletes on a university team, while others were more interested in social activities or were only attending because their parents wanted them to pursue higher education. Students tended to sit in the same place in the auditorium each class – in the front on the right or left, in the anonymous middle or in the back to sleep. On many dimensions, all the students were different. Our Lord has created each of us as individuals, and there is no one like us. Our genetics and upbringing make us unique.

With 300 unique individuals in a class, one might expect that each class, averaged across this number, would be similar. Given the large number of individuals, the net effect on the class would be the same each year. This, however, is not the case; even with a similar mix of individuals, each class acquires a character all its own. One year, the class might be enthusiastic and ask a lot of questions; the following year, getting a response is like pulling teeth. It is not clear to me what determines the character of the class. Sometimes a small event on the first day seems to snowball over the term. At other times, someone asks a question early in the term, and that seems to open a floodgate of different questions. I have observed this phenomenon in the classes I have taught (sometimes even in the same year, when I taught two sections of the same course). Each class has its unique character.

Group dynamics

We see this group effect in many places, where churches with similar roots diverge into very different manifestations of God’s will. Countries have sub-groups that differ in their view of life but are composed of similar people. Sometimes, slight differences can lead to significant cultural and social separation. Racial differences are often the expression of a few genes, and within each racial group, the complete range of human variance is evident. However, in many cases, group membership is used to characterize everyone in the group. But it is not possible to generalize from group membership to individual characteristics.

We tend to assume that people in our sub-population are like us and individuals in different populations are unlike us. This separation leads to a tendency to avoid others or even to assume the worst about them. Given that the uniqueness that God has given us is found in all populations, this is a mistake.

Our Lord has given us our unique individuality, creating a rich creation, and we should not try to simplify it by stereotyping people by their group membership. Group identity is another level of God’s complexity, and it should be honoured as an additional richness, but it should not stop us from seeing the humanity of each individual.