Multiculturalism... Good or Bad?

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants, ever since the first immigrants arrived here in 1607. They encroached upon the territory of the Native Americans. Large groups of immigrants came from Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland. Also, large groups of Africans came unwillingly as slaves. As the United States annexed new territories, it also annexed new people: the French in Louisiana, the Hispanics in former Mexican territory and Puerto Rico, and the native people of Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, and American Samoa. Today, immigrants come here from all over the world in search of a better life. The majority of today's immigrants to the United States are Hispanics, with a large number of Asians as well. With them, they bring their cultures, languages, and customs. From the day they step foot on American soil, the process of transculturalism begins. For some, it is a slower process than for others. To a degree, we are a multicultural society that continually evolves with certain values at the core. We are a nation that values education, hard work, democracy, freedom of speech, the rule of law, and equal rights. The United States is a unique country that compares to no other. The culture here has been influenced by the various immigrant groups throughout the centuries.

The first article, Pithissippi Burning, talks about White Nationalism and the support for a White state composing the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Such an idea would probably never go very far; however, it does expose the xenophobia that exists among racist Whites. Weak-minded people can be led by influential people to feel that they are superior to others simply based on ethnicity. That is what happened during slavery and times of segregation here, the apartheid in South Africa, and the oppression of Jews in Nazi Germany. What begins as a feeling of superiority ends in the oppression of minorities. Here in the United States, we have overcome segregation; however, racism is still prevalent in today's society. The election of President Obama showed how some white people have progressed beyond racism while others have not. Around the time of his election, there was a rise in hate groups such as the KKK and the Neo Nazis. These people were furious that an African-American was elected president. These hate groups that claim that claim that Whites are superior are detrimental to progress in race relations. The article also claims that White America is coming to an end. If White America was an America where other races were oppressed, then perhaps it is best that it comes to an end. A more ideal America is one where race does not matter; where the color of skin does not determine success or failure.

In regards to the second article, Why Multiculturalism is Wrong, the system reflected upon is that of the Netherlands. The way multiculturalism was being done in the Netherlands was not the right way to do it. According to the article, people were expected to retain customs from their culture. The Netherlands government tried to preserve the culture of the immigrants there. I do not think that this is the right way to approach multiculturalism. The best way to approach multiculturalism is through tolerance and assimilation. Here in the United States, assimilation is not forced but expected. All of the immigrant students are sent to school and taught English. Outside of school, they may use their native language consistently. They also may have different values and customs than that of the average American. More than likely, there is a community of people of their nationality or ethnicity in the particular city where they reside. Here in the United States, multiculturalism is something tolerated, not imposed. When the government tries to control and impose multiculturalism, such as in the Netherlands, it does lead to problems because the immigrants are not encouraged to assimilate into society.

In the last article, The Challenge of Multiculturalism, the effect of multiculturalism on Social Studies classes is shown. The article claims that students are learning more and more about the historical contributions of minorities and less and less about those of European ancestry. Some school districts with high populations of African-Americans rejected a textbook from Houghton Mifflin despite the fact it that devoted many of its pages to contributions from minorities. My opinion on this is that the History taught in schools should be based on significant events in United States History. The fact about US History is that the major contributors up until the Civil Rights Movement were those of European ancestry. They occupied all of the positions of power in the government, army, and society. I believe that all students should learn the same thing in History class, regardless of whether or not the district has mostly Blacks or Whites. There cannot be an exclusively White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American History; however, contributions should be taught from each of the different ethnicities. Every student should know what life was like in the United States for those of all races. If they do not, they are only getting a narrow perspective of US History. Another thing mentioned in the article is whether or not students should be taught to be proud of the History of the US or not. I believe that students should make that judgment for themselves. Students should be taught the good with the bad. If the bad aspects of US History are not taught, history is doomed to repeat itself. The United States has a lot to be proud of: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Gulf War, the Civil Rights movement, and the fact that the United States is the most powerful country in the world. These should all be seen as sources of national pride. There are also certain shameful aspects of US History that also should be taught: slavery, segregation, the Trail of Tears, Chinese Exclusion, the treatment of Hispanics after annexation of Texas and other former Mexican states, and Japanese internment. We as a society must learn from these mistakes in order for them to not be repeated.

I have taught in three different schools. In the two schools that I taught at in Murfreesboro, I did not see any strong racial barriers; however, I did notice that at lunch I would see Whites with Whites, Blacks with Blacks, and Hispanics with Hispanics. In most cases, the small amount of Asians would gravitate towards the Whites. In the hallways, one would typically see the same thing. In the classroom, the barriers were lower. Students of all races interacted more with each other. In the school that I taught at in Nashville, I had a class in which half of the students were Hispanic and the other half were Black. The Hispanics mostly used Spanish in class, and did not interact much with the Blacks. Whenever there were interactions between the two groups, they were typically friendly. Some of the English-speaking Hispanics interacted more with the Blacks. Just as I had seen in other schools, students typically associated with their own race in the hallways and the cafeteria. I hope to see more integration between different races in the future. The good thing is that there is more integration between the races than there has ever been before.

To conclude, I believe that multiculturalism can be good if it is approached the right way. I consider the United States to be one of the most multicultural and most culturally tolerant nations in the world. We function as many cultures in one. Today, music produced by African-Americans is listened to by many Whites. Michael Jackson's death was mourned around the world. People of all ethnicities and nationalities listened to or knew of his music. An African-American is the President. A Vietnamese-American was elected to the House of Representatives in a largely Black district in Louisiana. In just about any town in the United States, you can find Mexican, Chinese, or Italian restaurants. Also, in more and more towns, you can find communities of Hispanic or Asian immigrants. For them, the process of transculturalism has begun. They are bringing cultural values from their countries here, while adapting to those of the United States. The best thing for this country is to respect different cultures and allow those cultures to contribute to the melting pot of the United States. We must continue to function as many cultures in one.

Teaching Grammar in the ESL Classroom.

WHY IS GRAMMAR IMPORTANT?

When people communicate verbally, they are judged not only on what they say but also how they say it. That is why it is important for people to know correct grammar. Using correct grammar allows a person to communicate his or her thoughts clearly. It also makes a person appear more intelligent; therefore, people will pay more attention to that person. For example, if someone turns in a resume with spelling and grammatical errors, it could cost that person the chance at a job. If a scientist makes a breakthrough discovery and writes about it with multiple grammatical errors, people could be skeptical of his or her credibility. If President Obama were to call for Health Care Reform in a speech laced with grammatical errors, it would undoubtedly affect his persuasiveness. For these reasons, learning and using proper grammar is essential to verbal communication.

HOW DO I TEACH GRAMMAR?

I believe that the best way to teach grammar is to teach students a process when dealing with certain elements. When I taught Spanish, I emphasized subject-verb agreement very heavily. I would do the same when teaching English. I have had the privilege of observing an ESL teacher a few times, and I like the way that she teaches grammar. She taught her ESL students the prepositions at the beginning of the year, and had them memorize them. Now, when they work with sentences, they have to find the prepositional phrases and put parentheses around them. Then, they have to determine whether or not the subject and verb agree in the sentence. If not, they must correct it. The second time that I went to observe her, I noticed that she had added something to the process. Now, after locating and isolating the prepositional phrases, the students have to find the first noun in the sentence and change it to a pronoun. Changing the noun to a pronoun makes conjugating the verb easier for some students. Another means of learning grammar and vocabulary is Rosetta Stone. I have used Rosetta Stone before, and I really like how it teaches languages. A person learns a language similar to the way we all learn as young children. The native language is never used in the learning process. A person simply learns by trial and error. I have not seen the upper levels of it, but the beginner levels would be great for a student that is new to ESL and knows very little to no English.

When I get my own classroom, I plan on teaching a deductive thought process such as the one Mrs. Vincent (the ESL teacher that I observed) teaches her students. I believe that this is the best way for students in the 6th grade or higher to learn. Also, I would like to try Rosetta Stone with some of the beginning level ESL students. I hope to continue learning strategies from the best ESL teachers so that I can implement them into my classroom.

Multicultural Education

Introduction

Mutlicultural education is a very important thing to implement in today's society. The world is getting smaller and smaller every day due to the internet, commerce, and immigration. The
United States is one of the countries that is most exposed to immigrants and is therefore multicultural; this is reflected in urban, suburban, and even some rural areas. I have been in some Metro Nashville schools, which are the most diverse I have seen. In those schools, whites are the minority. Hispanics and Blacks combine to compose an overwhelming majority. In the suburban areas, such as Rutherford County, Whites are the majority; however, larger numbers of Asians reside in the suburbs. At some schools, they account for over 5% of the student population. Hispanics and Blacks compose a large majority. In Bedford County, which is rural, one would not expect to find many Hispanics; however, this is not the case. Bedford County has one of the largest percentages of Hispanics in the state of Tennessee. The Tyson Chicken Plant lured many migrant workers to the area. The diversity found throughout the state of Tennessee as well as most states makes a strong case for multicultural education.

My Definition of Multicultural Education

I define multicultural education as being a K-12 education that values and respects all cultures. In multicultural education, students from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and socioeconomic statuses have the opportunity to succeed. All students would feel welcome and respected in a multicultural atmosphere. From a young age, students would be exposed to foreign languages, literature, and cultures. Teachers, administrators, parents, and students would all have to work together to provide such an atmosphere. An ideal atmosphere for a student from another country and ethnicity to enter would be one where cordial smiles replace strange looks; an open, helping hand replaces a closed fist; the transition is gradual instead of a drastic, overwhelming culture shock; school traditions include an occasional Cultural Heritage Day; and students of all ethnicities and backgrounds excel. Some schools and school systems have probably made great strides in achieving a more multicultural education, while others may lag very far behind. I believe that a multicultural education and school environment makes a student feel more included, valued, and greatly increases the chance for success.

Initially, even after reading the material provided in the links, I struggled to define multicultural education. I believe that there are many different possibilities when it comes to multicultural education. Upon reflection, I thought about what an ideal education would be. It would have to start out at a young age, when young minds are most impressionable, in order to shape them and help them grow. I thought about what occurs in other countries, and realized how some school districts here lag behind severely. In Europe, many residents are bilingual or multilingual. Second languages are typically taught there in the elementary grades. That is one change that I would make. Students would have to take a foreign language in elementary school. Another change that I would implement is a more focused physical education in the elementary grades. We must combat the growing problem of obesity here in the United States. Perhaps instead of going to the playground so much, students could receive training in Tae Kwon Do. This would teach discipline, self defense, and get kids into shape. It would also expand multicultural education by bringing martial arts from Korea here to the United States. Also, in social studies, I believe that it is very important that students know all about the United States; I believe that it is also important that they learn about different cultures. Apart from learning about the cultures, tolerance and respect towards those cultures should be taught to students. I believe that if we were to implement multicultural education here in the United States from a young age, we would not see as much xenophobia here. The xenophobia, or fear of cultures, has come out in immigration debates and even the health care debate. I, as a white person, have seen and heard this xenophobia when talking to some other white people. They say derogatory things about Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks that I would rather not hear. Of course, the fault does not rest entirely with racist whites; there are racists of all races. There is even minority/ minority racism (for example, some Hispanics are racist towards Blacks and vice versa). The United States can do better than that. We are a multicultural nation; therefore we need a better multicultural education. I believe that great strides have been made, but we need to go further.

Challenges to Implementing Multicultural Education

Being a teacher is not easy. Apart from teaching class, grading papers, preparing students for standardized tests, and implementing good classroom management, it is hard to imagine making more work for the teacher; however, it is important that multicultural education be implemented. I believe that the biggest challenge to implementing multicultural education in the classroom is engaging the students in multiculturalism. Some students may be xenophobic. The attitudes that they get come mainly from their parents and their friends. Some of the ignorant people we see yelling in health care debates have children, and they are raising them with their twisted ideologies. Those parents would likely be opposed to multicultural education. I consider that to be the biggest problem. Another problem would be fitting in the multicultural education into an already loaded curriculum. Most teachers cannot cover all of the materials in the textbooks, and adding multicultural education to that would be difficult. As much of a challenge as it may be, it is important to do so. School across the United States must implement it in order for students of all ethnicities and backgrounds to feel welcome, as well as for all students to have a respect, tolerance, and knowledge of other cultures.

Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Steven Robinson. I am a 2008 graduate of MTSU with a major in Spanish and minors in Secondary Education and Political Science. I taught one year of Spanish at Blackman High School, and I am currently taking time off to get the endorsement to teach ESL. After getting the endorsement, I plan on taking the other necessary courses in order to get the Master's Degree in Education with a concentration in ESL. I am fascinated by languages. I am fluent in Spanish, and semi-fluent in Italian and Portuguese. I want to teach ESL because I especially enjoy helping people that come here from other countries. I like to help them out in order for them to be on a level playing field. Without English, it is very difficult to succeed in this country; therefore, I see the responsibility of an ESL teacher as very important. I look forward to collaborating with you all this semester in class.
In regards to my personal life, I enjoy going to the gym and getting exercise. It is a great stress reliever! I also enjoy martial arts, although I have had a hard time fitting that into my schedule lately. I am a huge Titans fan, and hope they win the Super Bowl this year.