Just yesterday, a teacher at my son’s school shared with me a story. She accompanied a group of California eighth graders on a Washington, D.C., trip where they met up with other eighth graders from across the country.

Unsurprisingly, they were initially nervous to meet unfamiliar teens from places like Kansas and Louisiana—people they viewed as living lives far different from their West Coast upbringing. But, in just a few days, when it was time to return home, she saw these eighth graders we