Is your town or city made up of people from different walks of life? Do you often see and interact with people of different races, nationalities, religions and abilities? Do you hear a variety of languages? Do you know people who have different kinds of family structures?

In “At the Intersection of Race and Housing,” the Times reporter Gregory Schmidt writes about how the demographics of two communities in New Jersey have changed over time and what they are doing to integrate:

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

• How would you describe the makeup of your community? What races, religions, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds and other kinds of identities are represented?

• Do you see different kinds of people interacting in your community? For example, when you visit your local library or skate park, or sit in your school cafeteria, do you see people connecting with each other across lines of race, income level or religion? Or does your community feel more segregated — that is, divided along those lines?

• How welcoming is your community to people of different backgrounds and identities? What does your community do to make people feel included? What is one thing you think your community could do to be more welcoming?

• How important is it to you to live somewhere that is diverse? What do you think are some of the benefits of living around people who are different from you?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.