should multiculrtural curriculum be required in public schools, why or why not?

Answer 1

I don't see why not. I mean, this country is NOT made up of whites only. and that seems to be ALL we learn about. then again, history would probably have to be rewritten in order for things to be more accurate because all the "History" we have come to know as the truth is COMPLETELY fabricated.

Answer 2

Because all the frills are meaningless if you cant read and write and do math through geometry and algebra. In some schools 20% passed the core curriculum. They just published them in the paper for our county.

Thats why you have people who cant make change without a calculator or a cash register. Would you like fries with that?
That is their ceiling. They cant follow instructions and as nurses would kill you. Some education - and you want to soften it and add social curricula? We can be well rounded idiots I guess.

Answer 3

NO
Students in Public Schools are already saddled with too many responsibilities and it is already too difficult to maintain the quality of education without new and meaningless curriculum changes.

Answer 4

Not until we can at least define it.

Definitions of Multicultural Education
Definitions of multicultural education vary. Some definitions rely on the cultural characteristics of diverse groups, while others emphasize social problems (particularly those associated with oppression), political power, and the reallocation of economic resources. Some restrict their focus to people of color, while others include all major groups that are different in any way from mainstream Americans. Other definitions limit multicultural education to characteristics of local schools, and still others provide directions for school reform in all settings regardless of their characteristics. The goals of these diverse types of multicultural education range from bringing more information about various groups to textbooks, to combatting racism, to restructuring the entire school enterprise and reforming society to make schools more culturally fair, accepting, and balanced. For this reason, the field of multicultural education is referred to interchangeably as multicultural education, education that is multicultural, and antiracist education.

Answer 5

Absolutely!

Not as a separate course. Not as some kind of frill added on to the curriculum. Not as a single unit, say, for Black History Month.

Multicultural education should be integrated with all other subjects at all grade levels, especially the language arts, history, geography, social studies, and foreign languages. Even science and mathematics teachers should regularly, though perhaps incidentally to the students, call attention to the contributions of people from various national and ethnic backgrounds.

There is no vocation or profession for which students may eventually be preparing themselves that does not require some communication with people of international and ethnic diversity. One cannot be an educated citizen, well prepared to vote in US elections, without understanding national and ethnic differences in the 21st century.

I have been an English teacher for a number of years, and I understand five dimensions of multiculturalism. I try to address all of these in my classes, whether in elementary, middle, or senior-high school--not exclusively, of course, and not necessarily in separate units, but consciously, directly and indirectly:

(1) Local culture. Students should be encouraged to read and write about their own family and community cultures, to celebrate their history and character, to inform others of important and interesting characteristics.

(2) Mass culture. All students come to us with a multi-cultural understanding imparted by television, Hollywood, pop music, pro sports, the internet, gender roles, slang and jargon, fast food, fashion, shopping malls, and teenage fads. They can be encouraged to explore how that "mass" culture differs from their local culture, how it reflects their local culture, how it satisfies needs and interests, and how it contributes to misunderstandings and tensions.

(3) Regional cultures. Do cultures in the US differ from one region to another? From the South to the Midwest to the East to the West Coast? From rural to urban to suburban, and the like? What regional stereotypes have grown up in our country, and to what extent to they reflect genuine differences? For example, "hillbillies," "Southern belles," "cowpokes," "Valley girls," and the like?

(4) International cultures. When I was growing up, the class called World Literature and another called World History began in Greece and Rome and confined themselves generally to Western Europe and European empires. How many problems might have been prevented, or at least understood, if we had two or three generatons who really were informed about the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the varying cultures in Africa, and the like. How ill-informed the public generally is until a crisis occurs.

(5) North American cultures. Only with some experience in each of the previous dimensions behind us, do I introduce consideration of the most difficult dimension to deal with in most school settings: that is, the cultural differences among native Americans and various immigrant groups. After all, except for the Cherokee and Shawnee and Sioux and other such cultures among the original tribes occupying North American, all of us are immigrants. We brought our own values, issues, preconceptions, and, yes, prejudices. We may have come as pilgrims, settlers, indentured servants, slaves, "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," refugees, students, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants. What has been lost? What has been retained? What has been "Americanized"? There are ethnic differences, religious differences, national differences.

OK, we can start with food and holidays. This week alone I will have eaten in Mexican, Southerwestern, Chinese, Italian, and "Southern home cooking" restaurants. That's pretty multi!

But we must go beyond these fairly superficial representations of diversity. As an English teacher, I address literature, of course, language, the arts, personal writing, biographies and memoirs, speech patterns and oratory, and critical issues.

Now, this is IMPORTANT: I do all of this in the course of teaching youngsters to read, write, listen, speak, and think critically. It doesn't require another subject or another unit; it simply requires thoughtful incorporation of "multicultural" topics, materials, examples, insights -- in other words, multicultural dimensions of classroom teaching.

It isn't easy at first, but then it becomes second nature.

Answer 6

YES

we need to learn about other cultures so we can grow to understand people from different walks of life better.

This will help with racism, and violence, and negative stereotypes.

Value the likeness and the differences between us!

Answer 7

It is required or madated in Texas.

Answer 8

screw globalazation and multiculturism. Lets celebrate American Culture.