Teaching Multiculturalism


As I read the articles for this blog post, I was reminded of several years ago when my school system, Metro Nashville Schools, adopted a core curriculum that included Core Knowledge from E. D., Hirsch, Jr. There was a Core Knowledge sequence for each grade level, beginning with Kindergarten. It included teaching about Native Americans, Christopher Columbus, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Black History month. At the time, many teachers and parents did not understand why all of this “change” was mandated for our schools. We kept the curriculum for three or four years, then something else came along, as it often does in education. What did not change, however, was the make-up of our classes and the students we were teaching. With so many immigrants and refugees coming into our city, our schools were also being affected.

When I was in school, we were taught what the book said. Textbooks were the law. You read the chapter, answered some review questions, took a test, and that was that. We were told how it was and not given an opportunity to dispute the fact, or give an opinion on what we thought. I can remember having some African-American students in my classes, but no one who spoke a different language, or came from another country. I am glad my children today have more diversity in their classrooms.

I liked reading the different ideas that Adam Waxler used to teach the history curriculum in a multicultural way. Hirsch said that “children need to have basic foundations and share common points of reference that will enable further learning.” I think that Waxler would agree with him. We can teach all children the same lessons, while teaching them how to think for themselves. They need to learn to separate fact from opinion. Waxler used some inventive ways to do that as he taught history. As teachers we do need to be able to teach all children and be able to give them differing views of the events that have happened in our history. As more and more immigrants come to our country and into our schools, we should strive to teach them about our country while at the same time not dismissing their backgrounds and heritages. We cannot change our ethnicity, however we can change our thinking. As more and more cultures come together in the classroom, we as teachers have to come up with more and more ways to teach respect for those cultures. I think Waxler is doing a great job of that by having his students examine various perspectives on events in history.

What is multiculturalism in school curriculum? By Adam Waxler
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?page=2;read=1621 retrieved 10/1/2009

Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Twl Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. http://coreknowledge.org/CK/about/articles/centrist.htm retrieved 10/1/2009