Multiculturalism in my Classroom

One day in my seventh period, I asked my students to get into three groups. A minute later, my kids were all chuckling and laughing in a oh-man-this-is-weird way. I looked around the room and there was one group composed of four Hispanic students, one group composed of five African American students, and one group composed of five white students. To say the least, it was an odd moment. Since the students grouped themselves, and the students work well in the groups they created, I didn't rearrange them. But, to be honest, I was almost worried that an administrator would walk in and later feel the need to talk to me about racial grouping or something. Thankfully none of that happened, the weirdness blew over, and the students did well with the lesson.

We live in a world of varied cultures. The question being asked in many history, literature, and other classes nowadays is "What sort of American citizens should we be shaping?" The root question here, of course, is "What is America?" This question has a million answers from a million perspectives on one very long, complex series of events. Our history used to be simple - Europeans came and discovered America. I remember the day I read an article in ninth grade about Christopher Columbus being a genocidal maniac. Maybe they didn't use the word maniac. But the article was certainly strongly worded, and I had never heard any of it before. To say it challenged everything I understood about America's genesis would be accurate.

Whatever America is, I know that part of education is national pride. This has changed over my life as well. When I was young, and all the way through high school, we said the Pledge every day. In my classroom we still say the Pledge. But let me clarify: by "we" I mean me and one student. This is something I simply do not understand. One student told me he doesn't say the Pledge because a teacher when he was younger told him that it "wasn't true." The ironic part of his decision is that it was based purely on what somebody older and influential told him instead of any research or deep thought. Now then, I understand that my students have the right to not say the Pledge. If I'm honest though, I'm very annoyed by it. Growing up in a military family, we were taught to respect the flag and the men and women serving our country. Today, I just don't really see that.

Ultimately, multiculturalism to me means that we are a country of many cultures. We will never be a country where our cultures meld into one - I do not think that is the goal or the hope. I enjoy the fact that my students have many backgrounds. I enjoy the fact that we can enter into conversations about those backgrounds in class and that the students enjoy learning about each other in that way. I've seen the conversations happen, and I've been excited about it. I hope we as America never loses our individuality. I hope we never turn to Sameness like in The Giver. That would be, as the main character Jonas said in that book, completely unfair.