students often react emotionally. With an awareness of the richness and variety of cultures in their community and a personal emotional reaction, students can take social action, another goal of multicultural education. Noel says that students would take action aimed at positive multicultural change. ( page 276)I feel that these goals are proof that the arguments against multicultural education are invalid. Multiculturalism promotes positive change for persons of all cultures. It involves not only teaching majority groups about minorities, but also teaching minority groups about the majority groups. It has its base in democratic ideals such as equality, freedom, and justice. Multiculturalism will unite our divided nation into one unit in which will have no mainstream culture, but many diverse sub-cultures, which will cooperate for the good of everyone, not just the majority or the minority. I feel strongly that multiculturalism should be included in all curricula. My school experience, until college, didnt include multicultural perspectives and I feel as if I missed out on some important things. I often feel a little clueless when confronted with situations involving people different from me. Without some knowledge of our surroundings, how can we be expected to survive in society? This question reveals one of the purposes of education, survival. Learning about the other people who share our community is an essential part of this survival in modern society. Multiculturalism becomes increasingly important as our society becomes more diverse. I went in a chat room one night and it was about how this group of African-Americans wanted all white people to die. I asked why and they replied because of my, the white, ancestors kept them in slavery. Did they not think about the hundreds of thousands of whites died in the Civil War for them? With these practices being taught I think people would look past the past and realize that people arent ...
