A Multicultural Education

Wow. This presentation kind of brought out my passion for teaching. I suppose I don't understand why we are not all educating our students with a multicultural perspective? I understand that currently it is more difficult (with most curricula) to teach this in certain disciplines, but in at least English and History classrooms this must be addressed. The fact that we are all different in so many different ways must be addressed by students any way possible. Students should understand that people believe different things, feel different things, are treated differently, experience different things, and are generally different. Their view of diversity cannot be limited to the fact that their best friend is a brunette when they are a redhead. It must extend tot he fact that across the world there are people going to bed when they are waking up, and those people have a different belief system than they do. In my classroom I will strive to use literature that shows viewpoints of different religions, sexual preferences, genders, nationalities, haircolors, skin colors, shoe size.... ALL types of differences. Students need to understand that not everyone in the world is like them. Allowing them to think so just allows for a generation of ignorant people that will hate those different from them once they figure out about them. Could I live with myself if I passed through my career in education teaching only white anglo-saxon literature? No. Shouldn't we all make a pledge to teach our students with multicultural perspectives in mind? Yes. Yes, we should. I hope that throughout my career I am able to have a hand in creating a curriculum where this is both possible and required across all disciplines. Won't our children be better for it? I'd like to think so.