“A Talk to Teachers” By James
Baldwin was a very interesting article to read.
The one statement that really jumped out at me was how he talks about
how children are very different from adults.
He explains that children are not aware that drawing their own
conclusions can be dangerous in the society that we live in because as adults
we can intimidate children to believe what we want them to believe and not have
their own thought process or way of thinking. I can infer that he is talking
about a white child because in the next sentence he explains how a black child
looking at the world is aware and able to draw his own conclusions about why his
mother works so hard and why his father is always on edge. In some way this child knows that they are
different and it is in school where he discovers why his family and life is a
certain way. When working across all
different cultural boundaries we have to learn about the contributions that
that particular culture has made to the current culture that we live in. For example, Baldwin says, “If one managed to
change the curriculum in all schools so that Negroes learned more about themselves and their real contributions to
this culture, you would be liberating not only Negroes, you’d be liberating
white people who know nothing about their own history. How can we expect others to want to learn
about our culture if we refuse to learn about theirs or really teach about how
their culture affected our history and how they made a difference. When working with different cultures it is
apparent that is right and just to teach them that they have the right to
examine everything and question what they feel isn't right.
The video that was seen in class really opened my eyes to how youth really want a mentor type of relationship with their teacher and not just someone there telling them what to do all the time without a bond being built. Youth also want to be able to learn creatively and in a way that they can understand better.Here is a great article about valuing diversity in a classroom setting, but this can also be applied to any setting Diversity
Because of the US is becoming very diverse and now that we have many different cultures coming from all over the world to attend US schools; our the curriculum should change. It should change by incorporating all diverse histories around the world. In this way we would be able to learn about how other cultures affect our history and how they have made a difference. I feel this would allow a way to cross cultural differences in the US.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. We need to bring the diversity of the many cultures into our society into our curriculums. When I was in school we had a cultures week where parents came in with the students and talked about their culture while serving the students a special dish from their culture. Now a days you wouldn't see something like this being done in a school setting. If we as educators tell our students that everyone should be treated equally, that also includes all cultures should be treated equally.
ReplyDeleteI agree culture should be part of everyday curriculum. When I was in school at Christmas time we would learn about Christmas yes but we would also learn about all the other cultural holidays as well.
ReplyDeleteThis sentence stood out to me in your post "How can we expect others to want to learn about our culture if we refuse to learn about theirs". To work through cultural boundaries we need to educate ourselves and the people we encounter.
ReplyDelete"How can we expect others to want to learn about our culture if we refuse to learn about theirs or really teach about how their culture affected our history and how they made a difference". I agree this is really important because so many times history is taught through the winners perspective and not both sides. We need to educate all that happened to get a better understanding of the past to move on in the future.
ReplyDelete