Portfolio Part 7

Reflective Summary

     Going into this class I wasn't really sure what to expect for multicultural education. I expected our class to be this feel good environment where everyone was accepted and there are no problems in the world and we are just going to talk about how to love all of the students and their differences do not matter because we are all people. I was in for a rude awakening on that first day. I was not sure exactly what Dr. Draper meant when she said we were going to have to talk about uncomfortable things on that first day. It is really sad that people are struggling with racism and are not accepting people because of their skin color. That was about all I thought of multicultural education, and I certainly did not think I had any sort of problem with that. I never took into consideration that multicultural education would include things like how someone speaks, their sexual orientation or how much money their family made.
     Each part of this portfolio showed me a different door to multicultural education that I was not expecting. I think the first time I started to actually get a grasp of what multicultural education was is when we did the second part of portfolio and we talked about our own personal cultures. This proved to me that having a culture was not all about what ethnicity you were or even what religion you were. I had a very different culture then even just my husband who is from the same city, same religion and same ethnicity as I am. Each person has their own culture and that is exactly the point, no one is the same and I cannot treat my students the same. They all need to be treated equally yes, but that does not mean that I treat each person exactly the same.
     When it came to being the "other" part of the portfolio I had a really hard time stepping outside of my box and I really did not want to do that assignment. I do not like stepping out of my comfort box or drawing attention to myself because I stand out. Why in the world did I choose to become a teacher then? It is all about standing out and being different than others. Having this experience helped me to relate to my students a lot better. I had never had the chance to learn from being the minority, I was always a majority. I was grateful for this experience because it helped show me how hard it would be for my students to be the ones that stand out, no matter what the reason may be. Everyone strives to fit in and that is why I want to try so hard to make my classroom and open, comfortable and accepting environment that they can discover who they are and learn from their classmates.
    The personal values part of the portfolio, each part of the portfolio seemed to get a little bit more complex. How am I supposed to pick only five values? There is so much that I want all of my students to learn and I just want to give them easy experiences to learn it all. Respect is still my number one because I think learning to respect others is a very important and will get you far in life. Respect captures all parts of multicultural education because it does not matter how one speaks or presents them self they still all deserve our respect and just because they are different does not mean they are less intelligent. I also believe that respect provides opportunities for all people. Throughout this class I have seen how far being open and respectful really does take you. No matter what your background may be, respect will open doors and give my students opportunities to learn and be successful.
     I learned that something I struggle with today is judging others because of how they speak and I did not even notice it until I was watching the videos on others languages. The second I heard that "hick" voice I immediately assumed they were less intelligent than I was because they did not use proper grammar. I believe that not jumping to conclusions is something I have gained from this class after this semester. What helped me to understand this was when I attended the court session. I did not fully understand all of the words they were using and it was in my own language. No body mocked or made fun of me or crossed me off their list because I did not understand them. I feel like that is exactly what I used to do, "They don't understand English so I may as well not even waste my time." I was discriminating against them because they were different then me. I was not excited to have ESL students in my class because they were going to be so much more work because of the language barrier and they should just learn English anyways. That breaks my heart that I used to think like that! I am so happy that I was able to change that perspective before I went out in the schools to teach the next generations. I would be a horrible teacher if I went into my classrooms with that perspective.
      Because of this, I was excited when I got my book for book club that was about immigration schools. The whole book was about these students that had gone through such hard times just to get to America and then there were people like myself here who were being prejudice and thought that they should have learned our language before they came out here. This book was very humbling to me to see a school put so much effort into teaching their students English and how to fit into our culture here without erasing who they were and where they came from. They all had incredible experiences to get here and that should be remembered.
     This book is big part of why I have learned how judgmental I was just four months ago. I never realized it and sat in class the first day thinking about how this class would not apply to me because I did not have any problems with racism. I have so many flaws though and that is why this class was so hard for me. Each time I read an article or watched a video it pointed out my own imperfections to me and I realized that I was putting myself above others because I had always been a majority. I had never experienced such things before. Having a multicultural class is no longer having a random day where we'll celebrate another culture like I believed it was four months ago. There is so much more that goes into it and I want to incorporate everything that I have taken from this class into my own lessons.