Analysis Of Mary Cowhey's Black Ants And Buddhists

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Mary Cowhey’s Black Ants and Buddhists, explains how to implement a Multicultural Education into the primary grades. Her pedagogy encourages educators to take a step back from curriculum demands, and a step toward teaching children to think critically in the “organic happenings of life in the classroom” (Charney). This book is written in a memoir-like fashion to convey what a classroom looks like when students are encouraged to speak their mind, engage with their community, and learn through rich experiences. Cowhey’s book is broken down by the major themes and concepts she teaches her first and second grade students. Each concept relates back to her personal pedagogy of implementing a Multicultural Education. These major themes include empathy, freedom, peace, activism, community, and social justice. Cowhey’s pedagogy uses “language and literacy to teach about the world with rigor, depth, and challenge in a way that engages and …show more content…

Cowhey’s uses a quote from the Dalai Lama that perfectly explains the difference between wanting a classroom with a Multicultural Education and actually having one. “Its not enough to be compassionate. You must act”. This book showed me that it takes more than understanding what Multicultural Education looks like, but how persistent you must be to achieve this type of education. Cowhey’s book is relevant to educators and the general public because it can inspire individuals from all walks of life to teach children how to be compassionate, empathetic, activists, critical thinkers, and so much more than what is usually expected of them. This book is relevant to my teaching practices because it made me realize how much more teaching is. Teaching is more than creating and implementing lessons, but so much more in

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