Multiculturalism -- Synthesis

At the beginning of the course on Multiculturalism I've taken this semester, my answer to the question, 'Should we be teaching from a multicultural perspective?' probably would have been, why? My answer at the end of this thought-provoking course is, why not?

I have found this to be one of the most valuable courses I have taken in my decision to obtain a master's degree in education because it has broadened my horizons and increased my awareness and understanding of multiculturalism far beyond what I thought possible. I had considered myself fairly well-versed in multiculturalism simply due to the fact that my family is multicultural, but the goal of education is to take us beyond our immediate borders, cultural and otherwise, and broaden them into the borders of other cultures. This course has done this for me.

So should we be teaching from a multicultural perspective? How can we do otherwise? We live in a country that is multicultural. We all come from multicultural backgrounds. We live in a world that is shrinking by larger degrees every year. We live in a country that, despite insreasingly stringent immigration policies, invites immigrants from every nation on the planet to live here, every year. We are not a melting pot, we are a melted pot. We must teach from a multicultural perspective, teach tolerance, teach understanding, demystify ethnic myths and strengthen our unity through the strength of our individual ethnicities in order to not just to survive, but to live our lives to the fullest. I have said that my family is multicultural, and it is.

My husband is Japanese, my brother-in-law is American Indian, my best friend is German-American, my mother is German and Scot and my father was French, Irish and English. My niece is half Hispanic, my ex-brother-in-law is second-generation Italian, another brother-in-law is Polish and my brother-in-law on my husband's side is Scottish. We are multi-racial, we are international, we are multicultural and we are not the only multicultural family in America today. And so, I believe that it is imperative that we teach from a multicultural perspective in order to educate our children to prepare them for the international world in which we live.

Yes, I think that we should be teaching from a multicultural perspective, to reduce stereotyping, to reduce fear of those who are different, to eliminate harassment and hostility against each other in our multicultural cities, states, country; to learn to accept the multicultural melted pot that we have become.