Multiculturalism In Education

I really enjoyed the article "Multiculturalism in School Curriculum" by Adam Waxler. His perspective was very encouraging. Why should we teach each culture separately? We are a nation, a state, a classroom of multiple different cultures blended together; we should teach a history that incorporates them all. Not necessarily one history that includes all cultures, but each cultures history and how they affected one another. The term he used, “intellectual segregation” is great! I agree that by teaching each culture separately, like we do with ‘Black History Month’, is not the best way. I have always felt that the importance of a culture should not be limited to just one month. I remember only learning about different cultures, including black history occasionally throughout elementary school.  Should we not worry or care about how blacks, women or any other culture affected who we are and how we got here, during any other month than the one assigned to them? Absolutely not! The history of each culture has impacted this country and everyone it, we should be teaching this in a very integrated way.

I found myself nodding with the majority of the article "Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School" by E.D. Hirsch Jr. I agreed with a lot of what he said. I particularly liked the quote, “Children will become adults who cooperate and sustain one another only if the school-based culture they gain makes them feel that they truly belong to the larger society. To create this sense of belonging for all groups has been the hope and promise of the United States in its best and most generous moments” (Hirsch Jr., E.D., 1992). If we teach our children that they all belong in school, they will feel that they all belong when they become adults. The opposite is also true, which is why I feel that having a multicultural curriculum is very important.

I loved the idea proposed by the Core Knowledge Foundation, that this country needs a core curriculum for each grade in elementary school. It makes sense to me, that every second grader, across the country, should be taught the same curriculum. I personally did not move from school to school as I grew up. However I remember a good friend who moved to my school around 3^rd or 4^Th grade, she was way ahead in some subjects and behind in others because her curriculum in her old school was much different than ours. The article also made a very important point that even if we do create this ‘centrist curriculum’ that we still have to make sure we are teaching them to read and write. The issues presented in Niko Kyriakou’s article "Organizers See 'New Civil Rights Movement' in Immigration Protests", in my opinion could be positively affected by a ‘centrist curriculum’ present above. The article describes the current issues with civil rights deals with “the interests of not just one minority but all migrant groups".  The issue, legalizing immigrants, is a huge political issue, by focusing on a small part; education, I think that having a standard curriculum across the country for elementary students could be beneficial.  

Multiculturalism

I was very intrigued by the article "The Challenge of 'Multiculturalism' In How Americans View the Past and the Future" . I had never given much thought to a multicultural history but after reading this article I agree that having one history for many cultures is never going to happen. I really liked the point made by Taylor in that, “History has winners and losers, and they see the same events with different eyes. At the same time, virtually every non-white group sees the conflicts of the past as struggles with whites, so multicultural history becomes a collection of perspectives that are often not merely non-white but anti-white.” Each culture has a different point of view for past events and trying to combine them would likely skew actual history. I grew up learning about a history as Taylor puts it, “about white people for white people” except for February when we then had “Black History Month”.  I feel that every culture’s history is just as important as the next and to limit our nations education to one, is quite sad. Yes, it would be impossible to combine all cultures into one history book, but spending time on each should be a priority for our schools curriculum. This country is considered the “Melting Pot” because we are a nation of so many different types of people, we should be learning and teaching about everyone in our nation, not just one group.

The article "Pithissippi Burning: Race, White, Nationalism and American Culture", was quite disturbing and in a way eye opening for me. It is very sad that there are people in the country who are SO closed minded. A quote that sticks with me the most is “For a very few people, this is exactly how they see the world today. They will not view The Brigade as an ugly, transparent piece of racial propaganda. Rather, they will open its pages and find a positive affirmation of what they already think, along with detailed directions on how to correct these ills in the goriest way possible.” I hope that one day multiculturalism would be apart of everyone and that how-to books on how to rid the world of non-whites is a thing of the past.

"Why Multiculturalism is Wrong",what? How would multiculturalism be wrong? I feel that as a future educator I should strive to teach multiculturalism every day. After reading the article I began to understand why some would think it was wrong. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being multicultural as “relating to, reflecting, or adapted to diverse cultures.” I think that this article has pointed out a skewed perspective of multiculturalism. In the first paragraph it states, “It limits freedom, it limits possibility, and it limits possible futures” and then goes on to describe how it limits all of those things.  In my opinion that is not what multiculturalism is supposed to do at all! It is not supposed to limit what people can do; it is supposed to help provide new opportunities. I think that it is great that people have different points of view and different perspectives on things; however it’s crazy to think that something such as multiculturalism means the complete opposite in another country.