I love how Taylor begins this chapter by describing the 3 types of orientations educators can have toward students with different cultures and languages in their classroom! Doesn't this just make you want to be a teacher who has a social reconstructionist orientation? What an amazing classroom could be created by embracing and respecting each person's culture--both the strengths and unique features! The students that come out of that system can be community--or even WORLD--changers! How beneficial would it be, for example, to create activities where the independent-minded cultures would intermingle with group-minded cultures! They could glean off of each others' strengths and be better people because of it!
As exciting and glamorous as it sounds, the reality of being a teacher who tries to create this type of classroom can be tricky. As we saw in the Ch. 6 case study, a teacher with a wonderful heart who so desired to create a classroom with multicultural education ran into problems with a mother who had a wonderful heart and wanted issues like race to be personal to families and not discussed publicly. When you look at the Ch. 7 Native American mascot controversy on p. 123, you see the actions of people who are trying to preserve the history of a region and honoring those of a different culture are interpreted as offensive to others with different viewpoints. It is obvious this whole concept can be very controversial and challenging for educators.
My question is: As we implement multicultural education in our classrooms and run into parent/student feelings of discomfort or offense, what do we do? Do we always yield to the students and their families when they feel uncomfortable or disrespected, even if what we are doing is "right?" I believe firmly that if we cause a child to feel alienated in our classrooms, we lose them completely ("They don't care what you know until they know that you care"). How do we handle situations where something we believe is right and done for the good of class is challenged as being inappropriate or making a student feel uncomfortable?
I have come across this question myself as I introduce new multicultural texts. In particular, every year we read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. If you are familiar with the novel, or even the time period in which Mark Twain is writing, you will understand why it may be controversial. Altough it is not as controversial as The Adventures of Huck Finn, it is definitely a diverse text that my mostly white student population may not be accustomed to. I do tell all parents at the beginning of the year what texts we will be reading, and make a special point to point out the novel and its contents. If a parent has a disagreement with my choice in text, I would have to consider my options. I have not yet come across this dilemma, but I think I would have to respect the wishes of the parent/guardian and find a text that would accomplish the same tasks, but with different context. I do feel that it is necessary to include diverse texts, but if it is a parent's wish not to expose their student to certain texts, that is their right, not mine to disagree.
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