Multicultural Education
This article is a response to a journal entry of a young person view on Multicultural Education in America. This article will have some similarly views and also different view on the education of your young people that is shared with the person who wrote the journal entry. Multicultural Education Only in America can someone have a strong opinion about how we should all be like in there eyes, even when we talk the same, dress the same and live in American but that is as far as it goes. Multicultural Education is unique in many ways and this type of education help build bridges that help young people excel in school and beyond.
I agree that we do live in the same country, speak the language, eat the food, and do the entire thing Americans do. I also agree with is statement on the responsibility to teach to the best of there abilities to help students, as educators that it is our job to help student achieve success in school so they can be productive citizens. My assumption of this article is that the students has only seen one part of America and does not see that there are many different cultural and race that make education unique and that this make our students special.
I disagree with many of the statement in the journal entry is that he is not concern with cultural or diversity. Every school around the country is divisive and each student is unique in their own special way, each student has different learning style and come from different ethic background. Cultural and Diversity One of the most important concept in teaching that the child come first not matter what cultural or diverse background they come from. As educators we ust focus our attention to the needs of the student because it they are not going to our school we as educators will not have the luxury of paying our bills, feeding our families and do the things we want to do. The focus of education need to reflect the needs of every student and cultural is another part of which this student is and by learning more about who they are we as educators will learn new ways to become effective teachers by listening to their needs. Every child is different and unique, they come many different cultural and different background and they each need special attention to how they learn.
The diversity in education is also important because students learn better from teachers with similar language background and can relate to them in a special way. For example I can use my native language to explain a concept to my struggling students and make a connection using tools or strategies to help them understand the context. There are many example of how diversity the classroom breeds successes among students, and studies have shown that students learn well in small groups when they share their culture with one another.
The important of preserving the cultural in education is very prevalent on the Navajo Nation, we have many different ways we are sharing our cultural with our native students through books, CDs, and many other ways that we share and teach them about the past and present ways of life. It is important to share your cultural with other people just so that they can learn from your people and create an understanding among people and how they live. This help reduces many misconception about different cultural and this help build a bridge of understanding between two people.
Another good example of sharing our cultural at the beginning of each school year all new Anglo or African American teacher comes to our school district they experience a one week crash course on what life is like on the Navajo Reservation by having the spend several days and nights with a family in the remote desert of Arizona. They experience life with out electricity, running water and technology as well as share the experience of herding sheep or cattle, butching a sheep or farming crops.
This experience for the young teacher is to show them what life is like for our young Navajo students. In Tucson, Arizona there is an elementary school does something similar with their teachers by allowing the new teachers to meet the families of their students at there home and spend sometime getting to know each other. This is helpful because the teacher become part of the family and the students relate better to the teacher, and the student is successful in with there education.
There are many other example of how diversity and cultural is used in education to help student become successful in school. Cultural and diversity are interchangeable aspect of education and both complement one another, and can’t have one without the other one. Cultural aspect of education shape our mind and thinking beyond what is being taught at school and diversity is making the connection to who you are as a person drawing from experience and background.
The importance of both cultural and diversity is to keep the past alive through stories and books, but to keep traditional alive for people come from different backgrounds and help build a bridge of understanding between two different people and this help the teachers to understand their students. In education the main focus is the students not matter what cultural or diverse background they come from we as educators should do our best to educate them, because they will be our future leaders of this great country called America.
