Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Education that is multicultural is important for so many reasons. First of all, in the future, people will be better equipped to work and interact with all different kinds of people if they have a better knowledge of their backgrounds and cultures. Secondly, students in school will be able to learn about themselves and their cultures which will give them a better grasp on the material being taught to them. Children should have a better (and truthful) understanding of their culture then what they see on television or in the movies. This also means that teachers should be more knowledgeable of different cultures so that they can relay the information in a way that all students will be able to understand. I always felt that students learn better when they can relate the information to their daily lives. In the Sleeter and Grant article "Multicultural Education," the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) provides five elements for instructing multicultural education. Out of the five processes, the one that stands out the most to me is "connecting school to students' lives, and contextualizing teaching and curriculum in the experiences and skills of students' homes and communities" (167). For the reasons that I stated earlier, this step is important for the students to relate information learned in school to their outside lives. For example, I mentor at the Johnson City Middle School and my girl's english teacher once a week gives a poetry lesson on a popular song that the students listen to. I feel that this helps the students focus more and remember the concepts because they will remember the enjoyable lesson.

I really enjoyed the you tube video "Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity" because he was funny and made some interesting points. I like how he said that people "get educated out of creativity" because it is so true. When I get assigned a creative paper, I have no idea where to begin because I am used to having a set of rules for a structured essay. I feel that creativity should be an important part of the learning experience because the greatest inventions and ideas for change come from an imagination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdlBJ-q-4JE

This illustrates my point about creativity being important for the invention of new ideas and technology.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with the part where you said the importance of a teacher knowing about other cultures. Just as its important for a teacher to have a strong understanding and knowledge on the subject their teaching, the also need to understand their students: the students' academic abilities, emotional needs, and ethnic backgrounds. What makes that child who they are...and much of that understanding comes from a grasp understanding of other cultures.
    I liked your video because it shows how being creative and allowing a student to be creative is helping not only them but the future of society...creativity will help someone in any career. And it is unfortunate that our education system seems to be training students out creativity and personal expression (which is something I touched up on my blog too this week)

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  2. Very interesting video there about creativity. I am sure that if teachers start working with students "where they are" then they have a higher likelihood of capturing the children's attention. Creativity is also necessary on the teacher's part. If a lesson is creative and engaging, students are more likely to engage the material and retain the concepts taught.

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