In today's society, especially in the United States, multiple languages are becoming more apparent. This is noticeable in a lot of school systems. At the Bobby Smith School, a lot of the children not only in my classroom but the school as a whole are Spanish. A large majority of these students speak Spanish as their first language. Observing this within Ms. Pickle's class, a lot of the students sometimes struggle with some of the lessons that are in English.
One of the times I was observing, I was fortunate to sit in on Ms. Pickle's lesson of diverse families from around the world. She would choose a book each week that would feature a family from a different ethnicity. After the book was read, Ms. Pickle would have an open discussion with the class on what the students learned about each family. It was interesting and inspiring to see the children react the way they did to each book. They seemed to enjoy learning about these different families, and it was one of the few times I've seen the children in her class sit in total silence and stare at the book in amazement. The book I got to witness being taught on was a book about a family from Mexico. The book discussed family values and traditions the family practiced such as the holiday Cinco De Mayo.
Seeing the teacher bring in cultural friendly books and introducing them to her young students was a great example of the theorist Allan Johnson. Johnson discusses how in our society much of the white race is privileged. He talks about how it is wrong to put white people on a much higher stance than the minority groups within societies. Discussing as an educator with your students different families and cultures helps students recognize and respect people of different races and ethnicities.
It was wonderful to see the students engage in open discussion and learn from the books Ms. Pickle read to the class. This showed me that she understood the importance of bringing in different cultural backgrounds to her classroom. If more educators did so, students would have an overall understanding of different cultures and hopefully would not see certain privaledges tied to different races.
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Hi AJ,
ReplyDeleteYour cooperating teacher's commitment to a diversity of books is commendable. I applaud her efforts. So would Allan Johnson, I am sure. His point, however, is that difference is not the problem. It is the privilege that is attached to certain groups that is the problem. You allude to this when you mention that "it is wrong to put white people on a much higher stance." So, yes, Ms. Pickle's pedagogy is nudging us along the right track. Until we address the issue of privilege, however, the problem remains.
You will be addressing these privileges in your newly chosen profession of social work. I look forward to your work in this area.
Dr. August
well aj this is what I think all teachers should do i think that all teachers should include every family or culture. There is not just one type of family or one type of culture there are many types of family and many types of culture. I feel that when everyone is included that makes everyone alot happier. I know that if I was in a family that was diverse or different I would want to be included in this discussion. When students are left out I think they feel as if they are worthlesss and someone can definatly not do that to any student. Everyone should be included no matter race religion sexual oreintation etc.
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