Since early American history, schools, like society, have addressed cultural div ersity in different ways.

In the colonial days, some attempts to adjust to cultural diffe rences were made in the New York colony, but the dominant American culture was the norm in the ge neral public, as well as most of the schools. As America approached the nineteenth ce ntury, the need for a common culture was the basis for the educational forum. Formal publi c school instruction in cultural diversity was rare, and appreciation or celebration of m inority or ethnic culture essentially was nonexistent in most schools. In the 1930's, the educato rs were in the progressive education movement, called for programs of cultural diversity that e ncouraged ethnic and minority students to study their heritage's. This movement became po pular in many schools until around 1950. Now, these days in education, the term multicultural education never escapes a teacher's thoughts (Ryan, 26). What does the term "multicultural education" mean to you? I means differ ent things to different people. For instance, to some minority communities, it means to foste r pride and selfesteem among minority students, like the progressive movement in the 1930's. An other example would be in the white communitites, that multicultural programs are desi gned to cultivate an appreciation of various cultural, racial, and ethnic traditions. C ortes defines multicultural education by the process by which schools help prepare young peopl e to live with greater understanding, cooperation, effectiveness, and dedication to equality in a multicultural nation and inerdependent world (Cortes, 16). When I observed at Madison Elementary in December, I expected the school would be multicultural in the sense of ethnic or racial backgrounds. Instead, I was very surprised to discover that the school was predominately white students, with only a handful o f African American students in each classroom. I did find out that the Wheeling Island ar ea was in very low status pertaining to income. Not only did over half of the students receive free or reduced lunch, but the students academic skills were below the national norm. I never r ealized what an effect of economic status can affect a student's academic progress. Of course t here are out lying factors, the parent involvement was at a minimum because most families con sisted of only one care taker. To make ends meet the single parent had to spend most of his/he r time working for money to buy clothes, food, and to keep their children healthy. Mad ison Elementary had made great strides to improve their efforts to better the student s academic

progress. The school had instilled different programs like A-Team, Pre-K classe s, Reading Recovery, various health services, outreach to families, and many more to ensure that the students will succeed in their studies. The role of the teacher at Madison is to assist and guide the students t hrough school with smooth transitions. This at times is impossible due to fact that some stud ents in their classrooms have behavior disorders, not all of the students are on the same lear ning levels, and the teacher can only help the students at school, not at home. Sometimes the pa rents do not fulfill their responsibilities at home. The teacher must adjust to the students needs. "When dealing with multicultural issues in he classroom, teachers must guard against p erpetuating racial and ethnic stereotypes, which is often done subconsciously and indirectly by fai ling to use linguistic qualifiers such as 'some,' 'many,' and 'most' when referring to cultu ral groups. There is much diversity within culture" (Ryan, 27). Teachers must also keep in mind t hat the process of social development entails the successful interplay between an integrating fu nction and differentiating function. It is critical that multicultural education programs foster both. The challenge is simple but significant: Can we create places of learning where stu dents are no longer strangers to themselves or to one another? The answer is clear: We must (Tamura, 2425). Students need to understand that they are participating in many differen t networks. They are involved in social networks, not just ethnic or racial ones; however, t heir cultural background and experiences may indeed have an impact upon the nature of their pa rticipation in these other networks. Students also need to understand they are also individ uals with talents, skills, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes (Ryan, 27). A goal f or all students, American born or not, is to develop cross-cultural acceptance, to have them deve lop strategies to work through their own prejudices and to sustain their own dignity when they become the targets of prejudice. We as teachers must work very hard to teach children to s ustain and protect our democratic way of life and to build a world culture of human beings who resolve disputes in ways that protect the rights of all (Higuchi, 70-71). The curriculum at Madison is different than any other school I have been associated with. Mr. Warren and his staff base the curriculum on the needs of the students . As I have stated in my journal, the language arts is the area of study with the biggest de ficits. Math, Spelling, and Reading are the main emphasis of the curriculum. I witnessed a on e science lesson with the gifted students. Madison has made great strides to improve in t

he area of language arts, they have improved many students' skills. They will continue the ir efforts until the students at Madison are academically strong in the area of language arts. W hen using multicultural curriculum, teachers must provide opportunities for taking perspec tives as a way of helping all students appreciate other points of view, which will help them to identify, through contrast and comparison, their own personal characteristics as individuals. Wit h this in mind, one is then able to establish an identity, along with a sense of control over it . Not all students learn the same. Teachers need to develop an awareness for individual character istics as a prerequisite to developing instructional strategies that will meet the learning style of each student. Teaching to a variety of learning styles will increase the probability of student achievement, thereby leading to a greater internal locus of control and improved self-esteem (Ryan, 27-28). Some think that Cortes has the right idea by introducing five fundamenta l concepts that all elementary schools should introduce to help their students develop greater i nsight into human diversity. His first idea is individuality and group identity. He believ es that students need to understand the significance of groups- racial, ethnic, gender, cultural , religious, and others. In addition, they need to understand that each individual can belong to many different groups. These groups may be based on birth others the result of choice and expe rience. Belonging to this group may influence the ways an individual thinks, acts believ es, perceives, and may be perceived by others. His next idea is that multicultural education i nvolves the study of objective culture like food, clothing, music, art, and dance. Teachers shoul d not stop there. There is also a subjective side to each culture like values, norms, expectations , and beliefs. The subjective culture involves the interpretation and expression of even univer sal values. Cortes states, "While learning about the many variations in people's racial, et hnic, gender, religious, and cultural experiences, students also need to recognize commonaltie s, which can serve as bases for building intergroup and interpersonal bridges." This is the bases for his third idea, similarities and differences. You may use the similarities as a starting p oint, but in order to bond you must find the differences and address them seriously. The differences lead to multiple perspectives and points of view. This his Cortes' fourth concept. Whe n diverse individuals and groups come together with different experiences, traditions, and views multiple perspectives hit and sometimes cause conflicts. A muliticultural person should understand

different points of view, and the elementary school is an ideal place to begin d eveloping this concept. Next you must build common ground. Schools also need to help students develop the skills to find common ground with those of different backgrounds and heritag e's. This requires practice and experience. Schools should provide safe settings with a c omfortable climate in which all students are encouraged to draw on their cultures (Cortes, 17-19). Sometimes we can acquire cultural ways without even knowing that we are doing so; it is like the air we breathe. Not know that our behavior is governed by there cul tural ways, we often do not see the need for change. Most teachers have been trained in educat ional programs that are not geared to the needs of the urban schools. They are normal ly familiar with the white middle-class schools. Indeed, a culture of teaching exists in Am erica that still espouses the notion that poor children and children of color, on average, do not learn as well as middle-class and affluent white children. A typical urban school serves stud ents from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds that are different form a typical suburban school. Some think that urban schools posses students with low test scores, a high numbe r of discipline referrals, little safety and strict security, a high dropout rate, and few honor students. Over the past three decades, most teachers in urban schools have been inserviced to death . Most believe that many of the problems they face are caused by those outside the scho ols. Most of them think that they have been involved in change but, the same range has always been present throughout the culture of schooling (Parish and Aquila, 299). Changing the schools must have new purpose and produce new outco mes. Most educators know that the quality of education received in America is highly correlated with the socioeconomic status and rave of a student's family. Yet to suggest th at educators bear any responsibility for this reality will bring not only denial but anger-as if the outcomes of schools have nothing to do with the work of teachers and principals (Parish and Aquila 299). With all of these dimensions into context, multiculturalism may be assoc iated with the celebration of cultural diversity. In overemphasizing the importance of group m embership, such programs can over shadow the significance of individuality. Schools need t o give equal time to the importance of individual development and achievement. And students need to be empowered with an internal locus of control that will help them develop a stable , personality that is aware of its strengths, weaknesses, potentials, and limitations. In pre vious years most school children were separated by groups and were taught to be prepared to take

their place in the world. Today, children are encouraged to be creative and to achieve. It is ironic and distressing that many schools still remain locked I that earlier vision. They c ontinue to package students into tracks, ignore individual learning styles, and generally overlook related individual differences. At Madison school every student was treated as an individual and e very student was given an equal opportunity to succeed. I believe that Madison is a successf ul multicultural school with the students needs being their first priority. Diversity need not lead to separateness. But the failure to develop int ergroup understanding through constructive multicultural education virtually guarantees societal division based on ignorance. Multicultural education belongs in all schools not just in districts with large multiracial student bodies, because all students will share the same multicultur al nation. Therefore, all elementary schools should expose their students to a broad range of our nation's racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity (Cortes,20). Schools do not determine whether or not multicultural education will occ ur. The societal curriculum guarantees that it will. Schools can only chose whether or not to participate in this process. For the sake of our children; I hope schools accept the challe nge and address it seriously, now and in the future.

EDCI 401 Name Here JANUARY 31,1997