Ethnicity In The Classroom Essay, Research Paper

ETHNICITY IN THE CLASSROOM

Ethnic patterns are changing every year. It seems that the minority groups are rising and are getting stronger as every new school year starts. There are many minority groups in the school setting now. ” Nearly half (46 percent) of school-age youths in the United States will be people of color by 2020 (Pallas, Natriello, and McDill 1989)”. A minority group is “a group typically numerically inferior to the rest of the population state… (A.J. Jongman and A.P. Schmid)”. There used to be two major groups in the school setting, the blacks and the whites. Now there are whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, etc. And even to go along with that (they are not truly minority groups), there are the “freaks”, nerds, obese people, homosexuals, too. With all the groups, the feeling for each one has gotten stronger. For example: “Typically, members of a minority group share a sense of solidarity and a desire to preserve their culture, traditions, religion or language (A.J. Jongman and A.P. Schmid)”. With all these gangs forming all over the US, each minority is sticking together, more than ever. They are all proud of who they are and what ethnic they are from. The fear of homosexuals and the hate towards the “freaks” have grown more, also. Which makes it tougher on the teachers and principals to keep everything running smoothly.

This change will have a big affect on our public schools. As I alluded to earlier, the groups are more protective of their heritage or their group in the school setting. Not only outside in the hallways (fights, gangs, etc.), but in the classroom as well. Not everybody is the same. “Research indicates that individual learning styles vary, that all people do not learn in the same way. Of particular interest to multicultural education is research suggesting that learning styles may be related to ethnicity in some ways (Hale-Benson 1982; Shade 1989). On the basis of this research, schools can reject the notion that all students learn in precisely the same way. For too long, educational practices have reflected such universal views of learning and have expected all students to conform to them. Schools should recognize that they cannot treat all students alike or they run the risk of denying equal educational opportunity to all persons. Educators should be aware of behavior that is normative and acceptable in various ethnic and cultural groups. The practices of multicultural schools must be both responsive and adaptive to ethnic differences”. They have said that different ethnic groups may have different studying or learning abilities. Also, in the classroom, there will be the task of seating everybody in a spot where there will be no trouble. The idea of favoritism may come up, along with the idea of racism. There are many ways the schools can be affected.

My thoughts on inclusive education are very simple. Inclusive education in my thought is having many types of students and making sure everyone is treated and taught the same. “Inclusive education means that all students in a school, regardless of their strengths or weaknesses in any area, become part of the school community. They are included in the feeling of belonging among other students, teachers, and support staff. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its 1997 amendments make it clear that schools have a duty to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms” ( http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/). As a teacher we obviously need to do our best in making everybody equal. Whether they are mentally challenged, black, white, Hispanic, etc. They all need to be treated equally. Cause if they?re not, parents can get into the mix.

Multi-cultural issues will definitely affect my future coaching/teaching. I will not treat anyone differently, but not everybody learns the same or get along. There will have to be different techniques to teaching a diverse class. It might take a full semester to figure out how to keep the whole class involved. But there is also the fact about making sure they all get along fine. Not all cultures get along. So seating arrangements become a serious thing! In conclusion, teaching will still be teaching. Diversity should not be that big of a deal.