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Home » Education Articles » Multiculturalism In School Curriculum

Multiculturalism in School Curriculum

What is multiculturalism in school curriculum?

Personally, I disagree with the many teachers today who are pushing the notion that in order to teach multiculturalism in school curriculum, teachers must actually move away from the traditional curriculum. Yes, we must move away from the textbook, but not necessarily the curriculum.

Don't get me wrong, teachers must include all the cultures that make up our history, but we must not do so in a way that we are forced to pull out each culture and teach it as a separate entity such as Black History Month or Women's History Month. This is not multicultural education, but rather what I call "intellectual segregation" and it is wrong. All cultures should be taught throughout all the units in order to be a truly multicultural education. Having separate months for different cultures is exactly the opposite of what a true multicultural education should be trying to achieve.

Nor do we have to move away from the traditional curriculum to a theme based curriculum as many suggest. Different cultures and perspectives can and should be incorporated throughout the various units within the traditional curriculum. For example, when teaching the Progressive Era (part of the traditional curriculum), my students work in pairs to write and present an interview on one person from the time period. I provide students with information from a variety of perspectives and from a variety of races and genders. I do the same for many of my units.

Another example is from my World War II unit. Part of the curriculum is life on the "home front" during World War II. My students are split into groups with each group receiving information on a different group of Americans (African-Americans, women, children, Mexican-Americans etc.). Students use the information they are provided to create a five minute newscast about their particular group and present the newscast to the rest of the class.

Likewise, in my unit on Vietnam, students examine various perspectives on the war from various groups of Americans from different genders and races before they write their five paragraph essay arguing whether they think the U.S. should be praised or condemned for their involvement in Vietnam. The students are allowed to form their own opinions and arguments. My job is simply to provide them with the information and be objective.

Honestly, I can go on and on providing example after example, but my point is this: The traditional curriculum can be taught in way that is truly a multicultural education, that addresses various perspectives and allows students to draw their own conclusions.

The beauty of teaching multicultural history in this manner is that it also addresses how students learn. Arguing and judging are at the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy and by having students make arguments and back up those arguments, whether you as the teacher agree with them or not, is how students will retain information. Fortunately, this retention will also translate into higher standardized test scores.

The bottom line is this: We can teach a variety of perspectives and cultures on a given curriculum in a student-centered classroom that inspires active learning and also increases standardized test scores.

Copyright 2005 Adam Waxler

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Don't Eliminate The Middle Man - Add One!

Don't Eliminate the Middle Man-Add One!

Today, there are situations when we actually add a "middle person" instead of eliminating one for increased service efficiency. If it's cost-effective and demand is high, then proper market positioning will make it a worthwhile endeavor. For example, my sister just informed me of a food delivery service in New Mexico that will let you choose one out of many different food outlets (all types of ethnic/fast food)- and then guarantees delivery within a specific time period. This not only gives the customer assurance of reliability, but more choices for dining take â€"out style.

In other areas of industry, the same idea holds true. There are electrical suppliers that no longer manufacture the product of electricity, but now are involved only in the delivery process of electricity to the customers. Because of market fluctuations, the new delivery supplier will utilize many other different energy suppliers to get the product of electricity to the customer efficiently and at the best market price. Again, adding the middle man seems to benefit all around.

In relating this theory to restaurants, it is the food runner that has become popular, especially in the larger dining establishments that rarely existed years ago. Food runners are employees who only work the rush hours of the dining room- only running food back and forth from the kitchen to the tables with light dining room table interaction (condiments, fresh pepper etc.). It is a 2-4 hr. shift, depending on how long the dining rush lasts.

Before large restaurants existed, the waiter would complete the process of order taking and delivering of the food. Today, the food runner can be implemented (additional middle man) relieving the waiter of this time consuming and sometimes painstaking process. The waiter must share a percentage of his tip with the runner, but in return his job is eased because the food is delivered for him- allowing extra time to work more tables and up sell to customers thereby increasing sales. Though, it does remain the waiter's responsibility to check the table for additional diner needs-- either while the food is being placed by the runner or shortly thereafter. The tip-out to the runner is usually 10-15% depending on the service system, but well worth it if waiter sales can increase by 20-30 %.

The main point is the food runner addition improves delivery service efficiency while being cost-effective (if the sales increase outweighs the payroll increase). Properly integrating employees into the dining room with exact middle man connections always makes for smooth service flow. It's not a matter of just blindly throwing extra employees at a service problem, but organizing the best system possible with the minimal amount of labor.

Adding the middle man can sometimes streamline operations in such way that it becomes irresistible and impossible to ignore. Always, the demand arises when delivery routes of a service system become overloaded.