Reflection 3

During my elementary and secondary years in school, my schools had a diverse amount of people in each class. I attended schools in Miami where many people from different religions, backgrounds, and languages surrounded me.
When I look back at those years, my teachers would embrace that our class was multicultural. My teachers would embrace multicultural education by the additive approach. The approach used was broad and basic but helped us better understand and build our multicultural knowledge. Since most of the students in my class had differences, my teachers would use that to their advantage. For example, in my fifth grade class when it was the month of December, my teacher, Ms. Hernandez used our holiday celebrations to share with the class. The month of December was separated into a week of Hanukah, a week of Christmas, and a week of Kwanzaa. The Jewish students would share some words and traditions with the class, such as lighting the menorah for eight nights. The Christian and catholic students and the rest of the class would participate in making ornaments and decorating the Christmas tree. The African Americans who celebrated Kwanzaa would learn the seven guiding principles.
Most of my teachers would follow the same route when educating us on multicultural curriculum. I feel that the additive approach is generic and should be taught until the third grade because although, the themes about black history, holocaust, and women`s month have made a knowledgeable impact in my education life, my teachers could have used a different and more profound approach for me and other students to learn from. The social action approach challenges students not only to learn the meaning of issues and themes, but it gets them involve. The approach promotes students to engage in activities that helps understand the subject that’s being taught to them. For example, the topic of eliminating racism can have students develop ways to reduce racism in the world. If the approach was applied in my classroom, I know I would have begun to create my own thoughts and perceptive on diverse subjects sooner. The Social action approach is a push for students to create their independent thinking.