Outstanding Work

As part of the homework requirement for Multicultural Issues, students respond and reflect on a variety of assignments from their textbooks, Gollnick and Chinn's Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society and Kroeger and Bauer's Exploring Diversity, including scenarios, news reports, and questions posed on class situations and personal experiences.

The response below is an outstanding example of student work on this assignment.

February 17, 2008

Video Insight 4a:
The Secret Life of Boys

1. Just as the video stated, boys are often taught to avoid expressing their feelings, and acting out aggressively is often overlooked and attributed as just being typical boy behavior. One summer I taught Vacation Bible School with preschoolers at my church, and the discrepancy between treatment of boys and girls was blatant. Anytime a girl had a tantrum, she was coddled and comforted until her crying subsided, and her emotions and the reasons for her being upset were discussed. Boys, on the other hand, were scolded and reprimanded for most tantrums and not given nearly as much personal attention or comfort during these episodes. Injuries to girls on the playground were also taken more seriously, while boys were expected to recover quickly.

I also noticed it was typically the boys who were acting disruptively during our activities, song time, or classes. Rough-housing between boys also occurred more frequently. These events seemed to correspond with the video's findings that society was less willing to accept boys' displays of emotion, but their aggressive behavior was often tolerated. Seeing this video made me question whether this aggressive behavior should be brushed aside as typical or looked at closely as an outlet due to an inability to express emotion in other ways.

2. I'm afraid my interactions with young children typically follow the mold of society's expectations. I feel like I understand and can relate to girls better, and I tend to show more sympathy and affection to girls. With boys, I often focus more on engaging in activities or games rather than conversations. As a teacher of young adults, I would still say that I'm more likely to engage in deep conversations with my female students because I feel like I understand what they're going through more than I understand boys.

3. To monitor my interactions with children and my students, I will make a more conscious effort to treat emotions from both genders openly. I definitely plan to use the video's advice on how to get boys to participate in emotional conversations; I will engage boys in private activities or exercises that take place in a safe space while sharing some of my own personal stories to encourage emotional discussion. I also think establishing concrete expectations, procedures, and consequences in my classroom will ensure that standards of behavior are consistent between the genders. I need to make sure that I don't allow boys to act up in class more simply because I excuse the behavior as typical.

February 1, 2008

Diversity and Variety Enrich
The Educational Atmosphere.

At the risk of sounding incredibly cliché, I chose a fingerprint to represent my approach toward multicultural education. I believe teachers should approach education with an understanding that each of their students is a unique individual. Just like fingerprints, cultural backgrounds directly pertain to a person's identity, and appreciating and utilizing the diversity and variety of perspectives found within a classroom will result in a much richer educational atmosphere.