Renae Wright Reflection 3

When I think of the word “multicultural,” I began to think about a place with diversity. Multicultural is a place with many different types of cultures and different interests. The elementary school I attended, when I was younger, was considered a multicultural to me. My first grade teacher was Haitian and many of my friends were Jamaican, Spanish, American, and/or Haitian. Even though the majority of the population, in the school, was Haitian, we still had diversity. The school would put on an event to share the different types of cultures in our community. We would also go on field trip to downtown Miami whenever they have there cultural festival. Even though in many areas we have overcome the fight of racism, we still other battles to fight. According to our text book, Multicultural education has expanded to confronting injustices based on gender, disability, social class, sexual orientation, and yes racism. In the old days we use to fight for desegregation so that our schools could be multicultural. I would consider my elementary school experience to indicative of the contribution approach. This particular approach is considered multicultural education in which the studies of ethnic heroes are included into the curriculum. I remember my teacher use to teach us the different leaders and there cultures especially during the month it was recognized on. We would learn different songs and even taste the different dishes. If I could go back to elementary school, I would love if my teacher would teach with the transformation approach. In this approach the curriculum is changed and students are taught to view events and issues from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives. I believe many students suffer from isolation and behavior problems because they weren’t taught that is was ok to view and respect other cultures. We should be taught, from an early age, that even though I may not be from Africa, I can still research and maybe find something I can relate too. Students should be able view different events and issues from different cultures, get an understanding from it and have a respect for it. I would be sure to incorporate this approach to my curriculum when I become a teacher.