Some Closing Thoughts

The last chapter of the text summarizes what educators can do to support a truly Multicultural Education. I am using the seventh edition and not the eighth, so some of my information and page numbers will differ, but the points listed in my book on page 357 give a good overlook on how all classrooms can be models of democracy, equity and social justice:


1) Place the student at the center of the teaching and learning process.

2) Promote human rights and respect for cultural differences.

3) Believe that all students can learn.

4) Acknowledge and build upon the life histories and experiences of students' cultural group memberships.

5) Critically analyze oppression and power relationships to understand racism, sexism, classism, and discrimination against the disabled, gay, lesbian, young and elderly.

6) Critique society in the interest of social justice and equality.

7) Participate in the collective social action to ensure a democratic society.


I like how the text summarizes the content of the book and then adds that school personnel can make a difference by making teachers AND students both feel empowered. It is a holistic approach to teaching that, in my opinion, will truly make an educational situation where No Child is Left Behind :)

The idea of empowerment is an important one for students and teachers alike in Northeast Ohio. As we watch our economy struggle and falter and get up again only to just fall again, I feel like we are watching a lame horse struggle and die slowly. It makes educators feel helpless when we are at the mercy of financially struggling families to vote to take yet more money out of their precious resources to help fund our schools. Many of us educators feel as if this stress is straining not only our pocketbooks as we face pay freezes, reductions in benefits and layoffs, but our hearts too as we see more "pay to play", reduced or no busing, and kids sometimes missing school or becoming more transient due to layoffs and foreclosures. We see our students having a hard time concentrating at school when we know that their home situations are rougher with utilities being shut off, or other necessities being at the brink of being unattainable. Unfortunately, we also know that with all of these struggles for our students we also know that it is crucial for the students to pass "the test", come to school and be successful - if for no other reason than to graduate or not effect the state report card in a more negative way (that snowballs into reduced enrollment and MORE financial heartache for districts!)

Kids may feel powerless because most of them can't vote, they feel they are "forced" to take "the Test", at the mercy of their caregivers' ability to provide for them properly, as well as the mercy of their teachers to provide meaningful, differentiated instruction that can be culturally responsive and effective. Because I teach at the high school level, I knew that I would be dealing with the developmental teenage angst that often accompanies adolescence, but I have seen an intensified undercurrent of dissatisfaction and anxiety that, I believe, is being caused or exacerbated by our Northeastern Ohio economy, school practices and antiquated ( in some cases) teaching methods that have not caught up with this state's increasing multicultural diversity.

Now that I have depressed you, I do have some ideas of ways that we could rethink this problem and approach it a new way. First of all, educators need to realize that there is a problem not only with how these things effect them but also how it is effecting our students as well. Many do see it but I also see some people who have either been teaching so long in one place that they need some new perspective or may be so caught up with self-preservation that they are missing the underpinnings of anxiety that their students are experiencing.

Next after recognizing that there is a problem, then comes the arduous task of finding some of the causes behind the problems that face our districts and students within them. That can be as diverse as night and day - depending on the district. Northest Ohio actually has quite a bit of diversity within it especially when you continue looking into and then beyond just racial, ethnic, disabled, etc within a school and notice the diversity between districts in terms of student population, numbers, ratios, SES, funding, class offerings, climate, facilities, etc. It is a tall order because I think empowerment for us as educators will lie within the realization of some of the causes of the inequity and the realization that we may not be able to change what OTHER people do, but we CAN change what we do in our classrooms, within our school's culture and climate, affect how our school and district can be known and presented in the community and beyond.

Here's a sort of personal educator checklist I made myself that I thought I would share:

1) Design exciting lessons that engage students where they are AT and facilitate the apreciation and understanding that our differences can make us strong and more intelligent if we learn from them and truly see them as an asset!

2) Be an active member in the clubs, organized groups, committes and social, sporting and Arts events within the school and district. Go beyond what is merely required in the "contracted day" because it is what I want to do - it is what I believe in.

3) Dare to dream with my students. Allow them to see their lives as they imagine them to be in the near future and help them to see how their actions now in school can affect the attainment of those dreams.

4) When I am overwhelmed, tired and ridden with anxiety at times, realize that I am sometimes the only person in my students' lives that is their "rock", or in some cases, their "soft place to fall". They look to me for example, guidance and wisdom - even if they act like they are not noticing - believe it that they are - more than I probably ever realize.

...Feel empowered yet? Notice that I did not speak about the students' actions yet. That will come after I, as an educator, recognize, realize, reconcile within myself, and take action on myself and my classroom/school/ district and community. I am asking those things from my students after I have found them in myself. Then I are not just asking THEM to do and feel those things - I am merely asking them to learn from my struggles, tribulations and triumphs.

~Diane