Schools are an important source of personal identity and group integration. In Canada, schools are better equipped to contribute to both individual and group identities than they are to be agents of general social integration. The central goal of schools is to provide quality education, and part of this mission is being more confident and creative in how students from varied backgrounds are taught. Across Canada, many teachers are struggling to meet the special needs of diverse students while maintaining some educational norms. Educators also are uncomfortable with having to be agents of social integration of not only students, but families as well. Two factors influence the legitimacy of how diversity is perceived in education. One, difference is not perceived objectively. Two, externally recognized differences may not be viewed by the individual as legitimate or familiar. A useful framework for understanding diversity and the role of schools might be that the school is one identity, its members another, and a third, their identities outside the school. The challenge of schools is to create a shared identity and goals that complement, not oppose, students' own identities. (JPT)