Diversity in our World

     America is a ‘melting pot’ of many cultures—I get it.  I however have a problem with cultures trying to make America conform to their native culture.  In the piece, New Immigration, it is talking about the immigration protests being a “New Civil Rights Movement”.   In 2003, protestors’ efforts played a large part in persuading the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve a more immigrant-friendly bill than the one put forward previously by the House of Representatives.  In this article, Partha Banerjee said, “It is about human and civil rights; it’s about all marginalized, under-privileged people in the United States.” (https://elearn.mtsu.edu 311)   What I find different about this and Civil Rights movement is the fact that many of the black people were here not by their choice.  Many of the black ancestors were brought here as slaves and the generations which followed were not necessarily here by choice.  I see many of the immigrants coming here, by choice, and not going through the proper channels to become legal citizens in this country.  By not being legal citizens they do not pay taxes that help fund many of the government assistance programs which they use.  It seems to me that the protestors and others following them want to get all they can get without any of the requirements and responsibilities of being citizens.
     There may be things I do not agree with about immigration, but I do feel that every child deserves a good education.  I found it interesting in, Toward a Centrist Curriculum, it is stated that there is an internal unfairness in our schools.  It states the no teacher can bring a disadvantaged child’s knowledge up to grade level, since no teacher can identify what that missing knowledge is.  It says that advantaged children get needed background knowledge at home, but less fortunate children can only get such knowledge at school.  (http://elearn.mtsu.edu 313)   This is true whether the student is from a home where there are no resources or if the student is from a totally different culture.
     I think that to be able to understand the curriculum, a student must have some knowledge of the culture in which it is written.  Cultural literacy is important in the classroom.  The idea behind emphasizing cultural literacy in schooling is the belief that it is possible to accurately formulate a list of essential trivial information and directly teach that information to students, enabling them to decode what is meant by the large mass of communications that surround them and define their worlds.              (Paul & Elder, pg 47)
     When I was in elementary school, it was during the late ‘60’s.  I did notice that all of the textbooks seemed to be written with white average children in mind.  Remember the Dick and Jane books.  All of the pictures were of your average white family.  This was true in the other textbooks also.  I don’t remember studying things like “Black History Month” at all when I was a student.  Now we have an entire section of our reading curriculum dedicated to just that.  If the class stays on track, we get to the unit during Black History Month.  If not, I rearrange so we are reading this section at that time. 
     I am all for teaching about the many different cultures in our world.  I also welcome those who want to come to America in a legal way and become citizens.  I just feel that if a person wants to live here, they need to learn and adjust to the culture which is here.  I don’t expect them to abandon their native culture, but they can’t expect Americans to abandon ours so they are ‘comfortable’.  After all, if I was to want to live in a different country, I would know I needed to learn the language and about the culture of the land to live there.  I would not expect the whole country to change and cater to me.

References:

Paul, R., Elder, L., (2007). Educational Fad, California; Foundation for Critical Thinking Press

https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133311

https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133313