Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

Multicultural Society and Education

By Kathy Deisler, Knowledge Weekly

Over half a million protestors against the proposed immigration bill in California has again marked out the fact, how many new people are coming to America every year to realize 'The Great American Dream' and secondly it raises few questions about, how we will assimilate them in our society.

Culturally diverse societies are living in America with relative harmony toward each other. This harmony is not the result of assimilation of these diverse communities into the dominant culture but by progressive respects toward each other.

Education in Multi Cultural Society

Education has played major role in the emergence of United States as dominant power in World War II. Our education system focused on progressive values and liberalism, which led to the advancements in science and technology.

Post 9/11 what we are witnessing is a growing intolerance towards different religions and cultures, which is disturbing the harmony in American society. Today the challenge in front of our education system is two fold - understanding cultural and religious sensitivities and inculcating them in our daily living.

Keeping the above objectives in mind, I have put forward few recommendations that will help in going ahead with our educational system in grow cultural diversity.

Understanding the history, background and other cultural differences will improve the understanding among students of various cultures in the school. It will help building an atmosphere where students across the table will be much more receptive in understanding each others view points.

Cross cultural education system will help in eradicating uneasy and confronting situations like the 'Prophet Pictures'. In our modern society the head on approach won't bring harmony but instead it will splurge situations where more and more people will feel uncomfortable in each others company. This uneasiness will stem from one fear of how the other will react to what one says and secondly people will notice more difference among each other than the similarities.

Today we have huge inequalities with in our society sort of which we have witnessed during and aftermath of hurricane Katrina. These inequalities may be due to economic differences or due to educational differences. Sensitization towards these inequalities is a step forward in right direction and I personally believe that the recommendations will achieve in making students across America to understand these differences. Further understanding these inequalities will help us in developing an educational system that works to remove them and groom more prepared and sensitive students in the future.

The recommendation of increasing diversity among classes across America is especially a worthy one. Today we saw how schools are either neighborhood centered or race centered. Increasing diversity will bring different perspective in the same class and students from the very early age will able to know that each individual has a different way of tackling the same situation. I think this understanding of being different and recognizing it as it is will bring forth a new revolution in our education system. This very understanding will reduce the 'Them vs Us' situation in our community, society and in this world. It will build a world where cultural differences as well as similarities will exist, without assigning values, i.e., better or worse, right or wrong, to those cultural differences and variation.

Kathy Deisler writes education and public administration articles, journal and columns for Knowledge Weekly.