Making a Mult-Cultural Education Work

A major topic of this week has been giving students a multi-cultural education. How do we do that? Are there topics that are off limits? What is the most effective way to go about this? Well, in my opinion, I don't think that any culture, religion, language, etc is off limits. Our students and community deserve to know everything that happens in this world whether we like it or not. How do we expect students to grow up and make the right decisions in life without knowing all the facts? We shouldn't. Students and everyone around the world should have an education that is open ended. The more information people have, the more they will open their minds to other aspects in the world. A quote that I found this week says that multi-cultural education, "values cultural differences and affirms the pluralism that students, their communities, and teachers reflect." Multi-cultural education can lead to so many different things. Let's just say a student learns about a culture different from his own and finds it fascinating. From that moment on, that student may change the rest of their life decisions because of a new outlook on life. Multi-cultural education is so important in so many different ways. How do our students learn about it? Teachers and representatives from associations involved in giving people education on different ways of life and culture should know their facts so they are giving the appropriate education to others. As said in one of my class discussions, I mentioned that students in the beginning of the school year should create an introductory project. This involves telling the class the type of culture they come from. During this project, students may learn new ways of life or be able to relate to similar cultures. After these students finish this project, the teachers should take part in it as well. I think that after this is complete, students will develop a relationship with their teachers and peers and be able to relate or differentiate on many levels. All of these things can work as long as the people involved have an open mind. The teachers and students must be willing an eager to learn about different walks of life. I am a strong believer that school curriculum should involve multi-cultural education throughout the school years.