Blog 1

From the week’s reading, I took an interest in Greene’s article, “The passions of pluralism: Multiculturalism and the expanding community.” She basically discussed the views of many professionals in the field of education who believe the canon should be more globalized to include more cultural perspectives and show the universality of being human. She also spoke about finding voices in literature that have typically been ignored, as well as creating new voices to describe a community in which each individual is prized and welcomed. This is an excellent idea because confronting otherness allows one to learn and develop his or her own culture.

We should be introducing students to various perspectives in literature (among other content areas, as well) to teach mutual respect and understanding for others on a human level, so that we can encourage students to realize the ideal community. As cliché as it sounds, today’s students do embody the future, so we may as well train them to value change, growth, and uniqueness. The world is changing; it is becoming less “white” as the years pass. The curriculum should be moving with these changes.

Stepping away from the literary nature of this post, I can share an example of how only learning one perspective in a class affected me in “the real world.” I took French in high school, and had a wonderful teacher. I truly believe I knew a lot more about the language graduating from high school than when I graduated college. After graduating high school, though, I got the experience to travel to France. I am ashamed to admit that I was taken aback when I met a Frenchman who was black. Throughout all the videos and pictures shown during my high school education (even in the textbook), French people were white. Logically, Africa is very close and easily accessible to France, and they had even had multiple colonies in Africa, so it makes no sense to assume all French people are white. It is interesting to think of how much we, as teachers, influence and shape students minds even when we are not trying. I do not believe my high school teacher was being intentionally harmful; she was working with the curricular tools provided to her.

What I took from Greene’s article is it is important to make conscious decisions when developing a curriculum. Leaving something out can unintentionally sway beliefs in a way opposite from the truth. Our discussion on Rosa Parks’ role in the Civil Rights Movement is another great example of how mistaken beliefs can be perpetuated, rather than the truth. We must take responsibility to ensure we are preparing students to function in a world full of cultures different from their own.

References

Greene, M. (2012). "The passions of pluralism: Multiculturalism and the
expanding community." In Jana Noel (Ed.), Classic edition sources:
Multicultural education (3rd ed.) (pp. 8-12). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.