Unjustifiable Equality - Trey Foy

Whoever said, “Every man is equal”
Must not have seen much of life
The world and its errors that we can’t fix
Makes it a constant fight

Not everyone is wealthy 
And not everyone gets it in a hurry
Some of us actually struggle
And there are most of us who have to worry

There’s some who feed with silver spoons
Who hardly feel life’s pains
And others of us deal with life 
And all of its complaints

Life itself is discrimination 
And I believe there’s no equality
How do you put wealth on a platform? 
While at the same time hiding poverty

Why do the rich and wealthy 
Have the right to look down?
On the so called equal people,
That are stuck on the ground

Rich and poor together 
Do not at all equal the same 
So someone tell me please
How does it add up?

There will always be a ground
And over it the clouds hovers
People as a whole maybe similar 
But never equal to each other

I chose this poem, due to its controversial nature. It is a counter to my earlier idea that I talked about how all men are equal, but because the world has such differences, it is not easiest to see. I just like the way it reads and a good counterargument is always good.

What other significant insight(s) have you gained and how will this insight impact your personal/professional life?

To be frank, I lived in a bit of a world of ignorance. I grew up in a bit of a realm of Caucasian mysticism. Though I knew that people had plights, I had not really had the knowledge until this class of exactly what was happening within the world. From the technology gap to the retention rate of minorities and lower income students to the true necessity of a school to be more than just a paper grading machine.

When the class started, I read about being a responsive teacher, but I assumed that it meant to just react to what is happening in the class, but I now know that when I move on to being a teacher that I need to be responsive to my students lives inside and outside of the classroom along with the impact of the outside world will have on the classroom. An example of this would be in 2001, after 9/11, there was a quick backlash against many people that ranged from Sikh to Muslim, because of the assumed ethnicity of the recipients of the hatred. I realized that what our school did was a responsive reaction in that we quickly had a course about different religions and how no religion can be blamed for something, the people themselves that lead the hatred are. Sadly, it hit too close to home the next day as a friend lost an uncle to a radical person. (1)

Times like these, along with reacting to general needs of students who need help during reading, reacting to peoples reactions to each others based on race and gender and just being a teacher that is much more aware of what is going on in the world other than what is happening is mine, is what I hope to use from this class in both my professional and person life.





(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Balbir_Singh_Sodhi

How can multicultural education affect broader social issues that impact our society?

Multicultural education is the start of what is used in our society to be equal citizens. The discussion started back with the words of the constitution in that "all men are created equal." Though the fight for civil rights and the equality of all has been a challenge since the beginning, multicultural education is a huge step towards progressing it.

In a school where there are multiple races and cultures, having students become understanding of the differences of others. This can only be done through what I spoke of in my last posting, but responsive teaching to the differences in cultures in a classroom. In a classroom, teachers have the chance to bring forth what people have as stereotypes of others and bring the class into the discussion.

I remember an idea of having people writing down stereotypes and then drawing them anonymously from a pile and having the class write why they don't believe in the stereotype. The class can bring forth their beliefs and if they want to publicly discuss it they may. This also works for people believing that they have been prejudiced against and talking about why they think it has happened and what they should do if it happens again.

The idea that there is a place and time to work on social issues is not really a thing. Social issues should be addressed at all times and any place a teacher can work on educating students. From reading books with social injustices in it, writing assignments about prejudice experienced, reading history about times that racial tensions have been the source of fighting. It can be included in most subjects and are things that should be talked about whenever possible.

I chose this image of Charles Reason who was the first African-American professor and dealt with the topic of social injustice.

How does multicultural education reflect responsive teaching to help meet the academic needs of diverse student populations?

Responsive teaching is what is needed when dealing with multicultural education. Not only is it responsive teaching, but a framework that is built around the principles of responsive teaching and instilling self-discovery. To be able to work with a student and going in and out of a lesson plan, helping people with their individual needs is absolutely necessary. This of course has a second name, scaffolding, as you are starting the discussion and then building on it for each individual student. When you are being a responsive teacher, you are viewing the world in a way other than how you need to see it, but the way that the world treats your students and how the community, family and culture affect them. Of course to do this, getting to know a family, their culture and their language is a great way to be able to be responsive in a fashion, but it is a challenge, because many families may have problems coming to meetings, filling out papers or being interactive, due to language barriers. This is another area where being a responsive teacher in a multicultural classroom is incredibly important, as you must adapt to the situation.

I found this image online when we were starting the course and I believe it is a great reference point, but does it encompass everything? Of course not, but it is a great place to start.

What is multicultural education? What are the goals of multicultural education?

Multicultural education is not a simple definition. Though the idea is very easy to grasp, the use and spreading of it in the classroom is a difficult, but rewarding challenge. Multicultural education is incorporating different people, places, religions, beliefs and differences in a classroom and making it work cohesively, with people becoming accepting and understanding of one another.

The goal of multicultural education is not simply to make the classroom diverse, but to strive for general knowledge of the different people that the class interacts with and to understand one another. A classroom that has people of a religion, beyond that of the majority religions, is something that is not always an easy task. There are students that need to perform actions, have restrictions or can not partake of activities due to restrictions and that can sometimes lead to a lack of acceptance from others. In a classroom, a teacher speaking about the differences and why they should not interfere with others and how others can grow from the experiences of the religion, is something that can be done.

The big goal of multicultural education, in my opinion, is the use of scaffolding, or the building of acceptable traits in children that become a structure to hold up the persons attitude for life. A student that has had the backing that shows them how to be nice to others, accepting of others traits and becoming a person that can identify themselves as not someone of one culture, but someone that is American and by that, I mean someone who identifies themselves as a citizen of the culture, while also being true to their own culture. This goal is complex, as many students, especially immigrants, have a hard time leaving behind or incorporating new culture ideas into their own. This is done through critical thinking, which is an important trait of multicultural education, in that it requires not only for the teacher to bring up the students to a point of acceptance, but of understanding why they need to be accepting and what they can learn from it, rather than just being told why it is important.

What is culture and what are some major aspects of culture?

Culture is everything that makes up a society. I originally defined it as religion and peoples beliefs, but its language, technology, even food and recreational activities. Modern culture in America is generally defined as a melting pot, but that definition stopped making sense when we started to try to be our own culture while melding with others. It became more of a mixed pot of, and I am aware of the oddity of this expression, but it is a mixed pot of fried rice. It's not the rice, the carrots or the eggs that make it, but the fact that the different cultures merge into one mostly harmonious group. 

Major aspects are what make a culture unique such as its food, religious beliefs/tolerance, acceptance of others and the things that the culture defines as it's unique aspects. That may sound vague, but I can not list everything that makes a culture, as something that makes a culture is something that they most likely find unique. If you were to look at a certain culture in a glass bowl, meaning you can see everything that every person in that society is doing, you can most likely identify items and actions that major aspects of the culture, but to be able to find every part, you must join them in the scenario, interact with them daily and find what makes their culture unique.