Reflections on Cultural Diversity

Growing up as a child, I didn’t have much and so when it came to having friends I didn’t care about what race or ethnicity they were to me because they were my friends. Between my parents and grandparents, they always instilled in me at a young age that it is very wrong to look at someone and judge them if they looked or act differently from me. I went to a school that had many races and ethnicity and they all came from different backgrounds than me.

I remember it like it was yesterday because it scared all of that was in the car. I had this one friend she was a little black girl name Tammy and she had come over to my house to play one day after school; my mom had told us to get ready that we had to go to town. As my mother was driving down Main Street in Ardmore, Oklahoma on that sunny afternoon Tammy and I was looking out the window and we saw some people in white clothes and hoods over their head.

I started to ask what they were doing and before I got the words out of my mouth my mother started yelling to get down in the floor where no one could see us. I could feel that we drove for a couple more miles and then my mother said it was safe that we could get up.

I asked her what that was about and she told me that she would explain it to me later that we need to get Tammy home and she could talk to her parents about what had happen.

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Later that night my mother pulled me and my siblings into the front room and told us that was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and they were standing on the corners  to protest against black people. I asked her why are they like that and she replied because they felt like it was necessary to try and hurt others but it’s not necessary to try and hurt others they are just like you and me trying to make it in this world. I really never understood it until I got older what she was talking about.

When I was in junior high, I ended up going to a school where the majority of the students were African American and just a few White students and Teachers. At first it was tough but I made some friends and got through JR high. No matter what school I went to there was always race within the school. When trying to make friends and keep them, it is very important for any child or adult to have friends that they can count on no matter what race or ethnicities they are.

Upon reading The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom, is very captivating and powerful to read it’s so insightful and engaging. This book is made of collections of essays on issues around the language, education and the identity. It’s primarily focused on how home language can have effects on the educational experiences of African- American K-12 learner. There are also articles on language and culture and identity within Britain, Caribbean and Latinos and other immigrants in the United States, as well as the small groups within the US who have strong accents.

In this book Lisa Delpit and the other people don’t provide any answers, and linguists that would argue that there is no such thing as a correct way to speak a language, given a variety of dialects in every language that has to offer. What I find interesting are the values and the inferences that people place on the way in which people speak, and then the role of the public education plays in seeking to standardize the speech and writing. You must be sure there is value in this standardization, but Delpit asks “at what cost?” Specifically, at what cost to those who don’t speak “the Queen’s English”? Or the “Standards American English?” We ask should students who speak a different dialect feel less intelligent or less worthy than others. What is the “Proper” way to speak in anyway who gets to choose?

This is primarily geared towards primary and secondary educators; there was a lot that I took from this book. First I was amazed by the ingenuity of the educators who had written the pieces on language in their classroom. Clearly there is so much more going on in our public schools than critics would like us to believe if this was any indication of the type of teaching, and learning is critical thinking going on within our classrooms. Second thing was all the questions around language, culture, identity and the role of the education. This was not a topic I had really thought much about, but this one warrant the attention by everyone involved in education from our parents and students to the teachers and professors. Lastly the issue on how race and social class has impacted our perception of each other. This is a very powerful reminder of how wrong it is to judge and assume based on the speech and structure of others.

As a future teacher in the making, I know you will need to have patience and determination to get your students attention. I will make it my goal to ensure that each one of my students is treated equally within my classroom. I know it will be tough but I will try to facilitate each of my students needs based on their strengths and weaknesses but I will do my best. I will also try and incorporate each of my student’s culture and ethnic beliefs into my lesson plans. I feel very strong that my students will benefit from learning things about one and another and about their family heritage. If I have any students who are struggling in the classroom that have any disability I will do my best to find new ways that will make it easier on them in the classroom.

With being a Para for 13 years that students with disabilities needs the extra person in the classroom to help them stay on task and complete their daily assignments. I feel that some teachers may feel overwhelmed by all the educational content that must be taught to students in order for them to be ready for the next school years to come. I also feel that the Paras that make possible for the students to be able to participate with their peers within the classroom.

In conclusion, Diversity is everywhere and that will never change because that is the way it should be if you think about it diversity is beneficial to our children. I think it is very important that we stay the positive person in the student’s life to help them really see how you should treat others and show them no matter what people look and act differently. I also feel that teachers can change a child’s life and their perspective of others. Our students are the future and it is our job to prepare them for it. When a student makes the effort to change it is our job to help them through it. We have the power to make our students excited about learning.