Cultural Diversity in Schools
EDCI 401
Name Here
JANUARY 31,1997
Since early American history, schools, like society, have addressed
cultural diversity in different ways. In the colonial days, some attempts to
adjust to cultural differences were made in the New York colony, but the
dominant American culture was the norm in the general public, as well as most of
the schools. As America approached the nineteenth century, the need for a
common culture was the basis for the educational forum. Formal public school
instruction in cultural diversity was rare, and appreciation or celebration of
minority or ethnic culture essentially was nonexistent in most schools. In the
1930s, the educators were in the progressive education movement, called for
programs of cultural diversity that encouraged ethnic and minority students to
study their heritages. This movement became popular in many schools until
around 1950. Now, these days in education, the term multicultural education
never escapes a teachers thoughts (Ryan, 26).
What does the term “multicultural education” mean to you? I means
different things to different people. For instance, to some minority
communities, it means to foster pride and self-esteem among minority students,
like the progressive movement in the 1930s. Another example would be in the
white communitites, that multicultural programs are designed to cultivate an
appreciation of various cultural, racial, and ethnic traditions. Cortes defines
multicultural education by the process by which schools help prepare young
people 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 of African American students in each classroom. I
did find out that the Wheeling Island area 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 realized
what an effect of economic status can affect a students academic progress. Of
course there are out lying factors, the parent involvement was at a minimum
because most families consisted of only one care taker. To make ends meet the
single parent had to spend most of his/her time working for money to buy clothes,
food, and to keep their children healthy. Madison Elementary had made great
strides to improve their efforts to better the students academic progress. The
school had instilled different programs like A-Team, Pre-K classes, Reading
Recovery, various health services, outreach to families, and many more to ensure
