Chpt. 5 Response to: Diversity in Education

I think the program your school started is great. I think all schools should partake in this. I think ignoring the fact that we are different is saying that your differences are not significant; that our differences don’t make us who we are. I know that my culture and my upbringing have defined me as a person; my beliefs and my priorities are based off of how I was raised. If we don’t acknowledge different cultures how can we learn from one another? Someone in our class once said something about teaching children to be colorblind. Whereas I understood where she was coming from, I feel that teaching our children to be colorblind is teaching them that being different is not acceptable and that we just shouldn’t acknowledge it.

I know in my high school we had the Hispanic wing by the ESL room. All of their lockers were over there and that is where they hung out. We did not have the extreme you did, but we did have some segregation. I think it is unfortunate that our school systems are like think. I hope that as a teacher, I am able to make small steps by treating each and everyone of my students equally, but also learning from their background and cultures. I think modeling this interest and respect is essential for children to view. My final thought on this topic is that one day children do grow up and go out into the real world. If they never learn about any other culture they will be naïve and ignorant. They will not be able to function successfully in the business world because you do communicate with other cultures quite frequently. They can’t just ignore the differences because they could offend someone or appear to be showing disrespect.

Your comment about stereotype risk was interesting to me and hit home. It is something I think teachers need to take to heart. I remember in college, I was getting ready to take the final; literally the test was in front of me. I felt ready and I knew I would do great on it. Well, the first thing out of the professor’s mouth was that everyone does poorly on his tests. Maybe two people in the class will get an A, but the rest of us would get a C. Well, sure enough I got a C. I really do think it had to do with him getting in our heads and telling us we couldn’t succeed. I am going to try and always encourage my students and let them know that they can do great things (however corny that sounds).