Multicultural Education in Your Classroom

America has always been referred to as a melting pot, but ideally, it’s a place where we strive to invite everyone to celebrate exactly who they are. As the US population is becoming increasingly diverse and technology makes the world feel increasingly smaller, it is time to make every classroom a multicultural classroom.

What is Multicultural Education?
Multicultural education is more than celebrating Cinco de Mayo with tacos and piƱatas or reading the latest biography of Martin Luther King Jr. It is an educational movement built on basic American values such as freedom, justice, opportunity, and equality. It is a set of strategies aimed to address the diverse challenges experienced by rapidly changing U.S. demographics. And it is a beginning step to shifting the balance of power and privilege within the education system.

The goals of multicultural education include:

- Creating a safe, accepting and successful learning environment for all
- Increasing awareness of global issues
- Strengthening cultural consciousness
- Strengthening intercultural awareness
- Teaching students that there are multiple historical perspectives
- Encouraging critical thinking – Preventing prejudice and discrimination

Advantages of Multicultural Education
According to the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), multicultural education:

- Helps students develop positive self-image.
- Offers students an equitable educational opportunity.
- Allows multiple perspectives and ways of thinking.
- Combats stereotypes and prejudicial behavior.
- Teaches students to critique society in the interest of social justice.

Road Blocks to Implementing Multicultural Education
Contrary to popular belief, multicultural education is more than cultural awareness, but rather an initiative to encompass all under-represented groups (people of color, women, people with disabilities, etc) and to ensure curriculum and content including such groups is accurate and complete.

Unfortunately, multicultural education is not as easy as a yearly heritage celebration or supplemental unit here and there. Rather, it requires schools to reform traditional curriculum.

Too often, students are misinformed and misguided. Not all textbooks present historical content fully and accurately. For instance, Christopher Columbus is celebrated as the American hero who discovered America. This take on history completely ignores the pre-European history of Native Americans and the devastation that colonization had on them. Some history books are being revised, but often, it’s much easier to teach that “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

Most curriculums also focus more on North America and Europe than any other region. Most students have learned about genocide through stories of the Holocaust, but do they know that hundreds of thousands of people are being killed in places like Darfur and Rwanda? Despite our close proximity to Latin America, American schools typically spend little time reading Latin American literature or learning about the culture and history?

Thus, multicultural education is most successful when implemented as a schoolwide approach with reconstruction of not only curriculum, but also organizational and institutional policy.

Unfortunately most educational institutions are not prepared to implement multicultural education in their classrooms. Multicultural education requires a staff that is not only diverse, but also culturally competent. Educators must be aware, responsive and embracing of the diverse beliefs, perspectives and experiences. They must also be willing and ready to address issues of controversy. These issues include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, classism, ageism, etc.

What You Can Do in Your Classroom
Just because we’re facing an uphill battle doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take those first steps. To integrate multicultural education in your classroom and your school, you can:

- Integrate a diverse reading list that demonstrates the universal human experience across cultures
- Encourage community participation and social activism
- Go beyond the textbook
- By supplementing your curriculum with current events and news stories outside the textbook, you can draw parallels between the distant experiences of the past and the world today.
- Creating multicultural projects that require students to choose a background outside of their own – Suggest that your school host an in-service professional development on multi-cultural education in the classroom

Favorite Lessons in Multicultural Education
Analyze issues of racism through pop culture.
Example: Study the affects of WWII for Japanese Americans through political cartoons, movies, photography, etc.

Analyze issues of socioeconomic class through planning and development.
Example: Design a development project with solutions to the needs of those living in poverty stricken communities.

Analyze issues of sexism through media.
Example: Make a scrapbook of stereotypical portrayals of both men and women. Compare both positive and negative stereotypes and determine the struggles they face as a result of these stereotypes.

Recommended Resources
Books:
Becoming Multicultural Educators by Geneva Gay
Beyond Heros and Holidays by Enid Lee
Lies My Teachers Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen

E.K. Garcia is a writer for TeachHUB.com– a new, free

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Multiculturalism and the Ten Toes in Bible Prophecy

Multiculturalism is the Trojan horse in America today and there is no surer way to divide and weaken a nation from within. There is nothing wrong with lawful immigration among nations. In fact it is entirely proper and beneficial for nations. Lawful immigration means to come to another country for the purpose of settling there. Almost all nations have laws providing for this that include tests of loyalty and allegiance. The assumption is that those who wish to become citizens desire to assimilate into the same culture and to have the same protections as do other citizens of that country. In general, the attitude of lawful immigrants might be compared with that of Ruth in the Bible, who told Naomi, when migrating to Israel from the country of Moab that the people of Israel would be her people and the God of Israel would be her God. Not only did Ruth migrate to a new country but she so assimilated herself into the culture of Israel that she is recognized by name in the ancestry of King David and Jesus Christ as found in the book of Matthew.

Multiculturalism is completely different from the national interest of lawful immigration. It is a doctrine so new in America (1960′s) that it could not be found by this author in Webster’s Dictionary and could only be found in a reference to a 1913 Webster’s Dictionary which defined multiculturalism as the doctrine that several different cultures, as opposed to one national culture, can co-exist peacefully and equitably in a single country. It was introduced to America in conjunction with the civil rights movement, as ethnic and racial minority leaders encouraged their members to embrace their own ethnic or racial cultures, and not to assimilate into the culture of the society in which they live. This has produced a form of ethnicity and racism known as “ethnic pride movements” which are now prevalent in our educational systems, holidays, festivals, and politics. Instead of integrating their own cultures gradually into the culture of the host country as previous immigrants have done, multiculturalism separates the various ethnic and racial cultures and divides the country rather than unifying it.

The antonym of multiculturalism is nationalism, which means that the national culture and interests are superior to any other. Multiculturalism holds that each foreign group’s language, culture, religion and ideology must have equal status with those of the host country. The doctrine of multiculturalism is a product from the minds of various architects of a new world order who believe they can create a world of peace and prosperity by integrating all cultures, ideologies and beliefs into one harmonious society without national borders. These social plans are designed by leaders and thinkers (Psychologists, Sociologists, and Philosophers) in such organizations as the United Nations, Humanist societies, secular groups, progressive liberal groups and communist organizations. Even though these groups have different names they have the same agenda. Georgetown University Professor and Author Carroll Quigley, an insider to these groups, writes in his book, (Tragedy and Hope, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1966,), “There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so.” (pg 950)

All of these groups have been vocal in denouncing religion, especially Christianity and Judaism. They oppose, contradict, and simply ignore the Word of God in all their planning. Since the Word of God is clearly irrelevant and ignored in their plan and vision to create a world suited to their liking, we should turn to the Word of God to see what portion of the Word they are contradicting or ignoring when they champion the doctrine called multiculturalism. We can begin in the book of Genesis and the time when God first ordained and established separate nations.

God’s plan, as found in Acts 17:26-27, for separating the people into different nations according to boundaries and appointed times, is made clear shortly after the great flood in the days of Noah and his family. The Bible tells us in Genesis 10:5 & 32 that God separated Noah’s family by languages into different nations over the whole earth. However, an event happened before they were separated by languages. The people, not desiring to be separated, decided to dwell together, make a name for themselves, and build a common city where they would live. Genesis 11:6-9 tells us that God saw that their hearts were set against his plan for separate nations and he intervened by giving them different languages so they could not communicate and understand one another. As a result they then migrated and were scattered over the whole face of the earth. The place where these different languages were given was named “Babel” because of the confused and incoherent babbling among them.

In I Chronicles 1:4-23 we are told that the world was divided into three basic nations according to the three sons of Noah and their families. The descendants of Shem settled east and north from the Mediterranean region. The descendants of Japheth traveled further west and north from the Mediterranean while the descendants of Ham settled in the lands west and south from there. These are the first generations on earth after the flood and they were separated by languages, into separate nations, according to the plan of God.

The prophetic word of God in the book of Daniel prophesies of the last generation and the last Gentile (secular) kingdom on earth that will expand its influence over the world. In Daniel’s prophesy we can clearly identify multiculturalism and how it strives to blend all cultures, ideologies, religions and languages together in a united one world society, as opposed to different nations ordained by God. It is not a coincidence that the prophecies of Daniel were given to him in a land previously called “Babel” but in his day called Babylon. This name has become synonymous with the forces who oppose God and is the prophetic name the Bible uses to describe this last kingdom, which likely is a description of the babbling, misunderstanding and confusion created by multiculturalism.

This prophecy of Daniel concerns a dream the King of Babylon had. In his dream the King saw a great and awesome statue that disturbed his mind so much he could no longer recall what he had seen and he did not understand its meaning. Daniel was called by the King to describe and interpret the dream for him. He described the statue exactly as the king recalled it in his dream. It had a head made of fine gold, its breasts and arms were made of silver, its belly and thighs were of bronze and its legs were made of iron. Daniel then described its feet and toes, which were made partly of iron and partly of clay. Daniel’s description of the statue in the King’s dream satisfied the King. Daniel then proceeded to give the interpretation of the meaning of the statue and its destruction.

He told the King that the statue represented five Gentile kingdoms that would rise to rule over most of the known world from the time of the King to the end of this age, with King Nebuchadnezzar himself being the first kingdom as represented by the head of gold. His kingdom, Daniel said, was given to him by God and is a kingdom superior to the others that will follow him and will be progressively weaker. Following the first kingdom would come the Medo-Persian kingdom, followed by the Greek Empire. These two were represented by the silver and bronze portions of the statue. Next would come the Roman Empire, represented by the iron legs and would become the secular kingdom in existence during the birth and crucifixion of Christ.

There is an unusually long break in history between the Roman Empire and the last kingdom which will be represented by the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay. Daniel did not specify when this kingdom would arise but it will be known, when it comes, because it will have the strength of iron, as the Roman Empire did, but it will also have divisions and discord in it. Daniel then described the last kingdom to the King. He described it as a divided kingdom, partly strong and partly brittle because, even though they combine together they will not adhere to one another. Daniel describes a kingdom in which the seed of men throughout the world will mingle themselves together but cannot unite with each other. The Amplified Bible explains that these different ideologies cannot harmonize even as iron cannot mingle with clay. The Bible makes it clear that God cannot bear with or tolerate this kingdom, which seeks to combine and mix the different nationalities, languages, cultures, ideologies and religions together and it may be why this will be the last secular nation to rule on earth.

Daniel then continues his description of this kingdom and how it will meet its end. He describes the last of the dream to the king, telling him that the king saw a great stone which was hurled at the statue’s feet, striking it and crushing it, until it became like dust blown away by the wind. After the entire statue was destroyed, Daniel described how this same stone, symbolic of Christ, became greater than all these kingdoms and was like a mountain which filled the entire earth. This last world kingdom, called “Mystery Babylon”, will rush headlong into oblivion, ignoring God’s word, defying his will and forsaking his rule. Multiculturalism may be among the last straws that ends God’s patience with mankind.

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