January 28, 2008

Like a Garden Salad

I chose a picture of a pretty hefty salad because of the saying that goes something like "America is like a great big melting pot." I've heard an argument made about how that is a bad thing and we should be more like a garden salad, or at least like the one above, and I tend to agree with it.

The argument goes that in the melting pot, cultural diversity and uniqueness are melted away, so to speak. They melt and blend together until there is just one new strand. In the salad, cultures and beliefs are in the same bowl and do not have that uniqueness taken away.

To me, this represents what it could mean to be teaching in a multicultural atmosphere. We're not going to turn the class into drones who are going to think identically, but we're going to keep the class together, give each student a chance to flourish, arm them with the knowledge they'll need to succeed, and not leave anybody out of the mix. We'll appeal to all groups, just like a salad can surprisingly appeal to so many food groups and tastes.