Cultural Diversity In Schools :: Education Culture Socioeconomic Status Essays

Since early American history, educates, like society, have addressedcultural diversity in different ways. In the colonial old age, some attempts toadjust to cultural differences were made in the New York colony, but thedominant American culture was the norm in the general public, as tumefy as most ofthe schools. As America approached the nineteenth century, the need for acommon culture was the basis for the educational forum. Formal public school affirmation in cultural diversity was rare, and appreciation or celebration of minority or ethnic culture essentially was nonexistent in most schools. In the1930s, the educators were in the progressive education movement, called forprograms of cultural diversity that encouraged ethnic and minority students tostudy their heritage. This movement became popular in many schools untilaround 1950. Now, these days in education, the term multicultural educationnever escapes a teachers thoughts (Ryan, 26).What does the term multicultural education mean to you? It meansdifferent things to different citizenry. For instance, to some minoritycommunities, it means to foster pride and self-esteem among minority students,like the progressive movement in the 1930s. Another example would be in thewhite communitites, that multicultural programs are designed to cultivate anappreciation of various cultural, racial, and ethnic traditions. Cortes definesmulticultural education by the process by which schools help prepare youngpeople to live with greater understanding, cooperation, effectiveness, anddedication to equality in a multicultural nation and inerdependent world (Cortes,16).When I observed at Madison Elementary in December, I expected the schoolwould be multicultural in the sense of ethnic or racial backgrounds. Instead,I was real surprised to discover that the school was predominately whitestudents, with only a handful of African American students in each classroom. Idid find out that the Wheeling Island area was in very low st atus pertaining toincome. 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 realizedwhat an effect of economic status can affect a students academic progress. Ofcourse there are out lying factors, the conjure up involvement was at a minimumbecause most families consisted of only one care taker. To make ends meet thesingle parent had to spend most of his/her while working for money to buy clothes,food, and to keep their children healthy. Madison Elementary had made greatstrides to improve their efforts to better the students academic progress. Theschool had instilled different programs like A-Team, Pre-K classes, adaptationRecovery, various health services, outreach to families, and many more to ensure