New York City is so diverse in regards to its
people. It is truly a melting pot of cultures but why this diversity doesn’t
reflects in its classrooms’ curriculum. Oh yes, once a year in February you
will find teachers in NYC reading Dr. Martin Luther’s dream speech and
mentioning Chinese New Year, and in March they introducing some Spanish
American achievements. Some schools also have international night. Is this
considered multicultural education? “Get outta here! “
Our classrooms,
especially in New York, must reflect the students’ culture in all subjects in
the curriculum every day. Teachers need to find examples or ways to link topics
to their student’s cultures. This will make the content being taught more real
to the student because they will be able to make connections. The classroom
will become a bridge between the school, community and the world.
Also,
multicultural education will influence students to appreciate and accept other
people’s cultures, while embracing the wonderfulness of their own along with
the importance of learning about the similarities and difference without making
any culture seem superior or inferior. It teaches students tolerance,
understandings and appreciation of different cultures and get rid of
stereotype. Especially in a place like NYC, we must all learn to get along.
There are so
many opportunities to promote culture awareness in NYC. New York City’s teachers
need to take these opportunities to integrate or infuse the many different
cultures of the class into their everyday curriculum to promote awareness at
the highest level. Our students because
of our city diversity should be globe knowledgeable. Let’s go beyond, NYC schools should be number
one in multicultural education. So come
on here, give me a hotdog and some multicultural education.
Carolyn Jobes-Padellan
Touro College Student
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