Multicultural illiteracy has devastating effects

	Pro and Cons of Multicultural Education

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.

	"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. Harman and Edelsky (1989)
	Children 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.
	Teachers need to build on concepts of learning that children have been exposed to by their parents.

Multicultural Illiteracy

	Teachers need to be careful not to perpetuate stereotypes though the reading of ethnic literature
		Watch out that in exposing one aspect of a culture you don’t make that aspect the underlying example of everyone from that culture. Such as if you are studying Caesar Chavez make sure that you study other non-farming oriented Mexican-Americans
		Also, the best examples of culture come from the people themselves.  Get the culture presented by someone from the culture, it will hold more meaning and validity.
		Let children choose their own examples and point out others from the same ethnic group and how their ideas were the same and/or different.
		Look at the type and source of multicultural literature, make sure that it is accurate, up-to-date, and good literature.

Why Teachers May Not Want To Teach Multiculturalism In Their Classrooms:

	They themselves may not be educated enough in other cultures to teach their students about them
	They are afraid of choosing wrong material
	They want to avoid stereotypes

Cons Of Multicultural Education:

	According to some peoples’ views, if one wants to alienate and further fragment the communication and rapport between ethnic groups, implement multicultural education.
	To dwell on cultural differences is to foster negative prejudices and stereotypes, and this is human nature to view those who are different as inferior. Thus, multicultural education will enhance feelings of being atypical.
	Schools in America may see multicultural education as way to “color blind” their students to differences.
	A common statement from this line of thinking is, ‘we are more alike than different’. We should focus on the similarities and not the differences to achieve greater equanimity among the races.
	Multicultural education may increase the resentment encountered by students who feel that changes in school traditions, curriculum, and academic standards are not necessary to get along and respect students from ethnic minorities.

Losing Our Language: How Multicultural Classroom
Instruction Is Undermining Our Children’s Ability to
Read, Write and Respond:

	American students’ reading and writing scores are steadily declining, and the increasing achievement gap between minority and other students is particularly alarming.
	The latest studies show that 43% of our children test below grade level. Educators, politicians, and parents all blame class size, crumbling schools, and inconsistent standards for this unfortunate trend.
		In this book, Dr. Stotsky details the changes that have been made over the past decade in cultural content and teaching strategies used for reading instruction in elementary schools.
		She asserts that under the guise of an overzealous, culturally diverse agenda, intellectual and literary goals are rapidly being displaced by social and political goals and by the demands of profoundly moralizing pedagogy.
		Losing Our Language, discusses how, in an effort to incorporate more ethnically varied readings into children’s textbooks and to raise minority students’ self esteem, basal readers have systematically been "dumbed down"; what’s more as the readers have become grammatically more simple and simpleminded, there has been a downward trend in children’s analytical powers, general knowledge, and overall literacy.

Common Pitfalls in Selecting Multicultural Books for Children:

		Limited availability of criticism that addresses
		accuracy, authenticity, and related problem often
		leads to a major pitfall for teachers seeking
		multicultural books.
		Teachers are sometimes caught by the unexamined
		assumption that a book is multicultural and worthwhile
		if it has non-European American characters or themes
		and is critically acclaimed in well-known journals.
		For example, Native American scholars Reese and
		Caldwell-Wood found several problems when they
		examined popular picture books written and illustrated
		by European Americans in which Native American people
		or ideas play a central role.

Slide 8

Summarize

	We believe that today’s version of
	multiculturalism is needlessly limiting the academic
	achievement of the very children for whom most of
	these changes were initiated.
	Education’s aim should be to teach children to read
	from the best literature available and not from the
	most ethnically diverse sections we find.
	Ultimately, reading teaches us how to think- regardless
	of whether we are rich or poor, black or white. I know
	that it is possible to expose children to good quality, diverse
	Literature, and I will make it my priority

 References

	Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom by Lisa D. Delpit
	Losing Our Language: How Multiculturalism Classroom Instruction Is Undermining Our Children's Ability to Read, Write, and Reason by Sandra Stotsky

More Refernces

	We Can't Teach What We Don't Know by Gary R. Howard
	Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add by Charles J. Sykes