Chapter 10-Artino

After reading chapter 10, it does seem to bring together all of the chapters from the book. The question that was asked is what can we add to our efforts in NE Ohio in order to achieve the quality of life and social justice for all.

What is missing? The one thing that I think is missing today in the educational system is lack of knowledge from the educators. This whole semester we have been focusing on cultural awareness and multicultural education, but how many teachers really stick to this justice. The Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) set five standards for improving learning of diverse students (p.378). How many of those standards are currently being followed. It was also mentioned in the book about dispositions, which are the values, commitments, and professional ethics that influence teaching and interactions with students, families and the community. How much of this is being utilized by the educator or teacher?

Further enhancement needs to start with the basics, like stated in the book one of the first steps in becoming a multicultural educator is to examine and clarify one's own cultural identity.

What can we create that is not already there. One suggestion that I think we can create to help make multicultural education more known is to talk about more. Have it incorporated into the lesson for the day, and have it accountable by the School Board. Try to be more involved with the community in which you teach, to get to know the families and students more. Create learning communities based on making multicultural education more of a standard than a way of looking at things.

The only suggestion that I have for how can we do better what we already do, is to really understand the complexity of the world around us. Think more about what the student feels and thinks while you are educating them in a particular subject. Put your self in their shoes. At the beginning of the chapter it mentioned a girl, Natisha, who was withdrawing from school, and her advisor could not seem to understand why because she had good grades. The advisor put his thoughts a side, and processed the paperwork. Why did Mr. Williams not go and talk to Natisha, why did he just process the paperwork. These are the times when we need to step up to the plate, ask questions, get answers, and really make a difference. Let's not just keep shuffling paperwork, and putting our real thoughts a side.