4/4/2007
2
Multicultural
education should become a regular part of education in the United States for three major reasons:
the social realities of
U.S. society, the influence of culture and ethnicity on human growth and development, and the
conditions of effective teaching
and learning.
u"Whole language" and process writing
approaches to teaching literacy are also educational innovations that can permit students to
bring diverse "ways with words"
and interests to the classroom; in the process, the "cultural
capital" embedded in
traditional school assumptions and practices is reconfigured.
uChildren from cultures outside of what has become the
U.S. model may be inhibited by
learning and interacting styles that differ from their cultures approach to communication.
uTeachers need to build on concepts of learning that
children have been exposed to
by their parents.