The Multicultural Education
John Searle addresses the “major debate… going on at present concerning… a crisis in the teaching of the humanities.” [Searle, 106] He goes on to defend the canon of works by dead white males that has traditionally made up the curriculum of liberal arts education. I disagree with many of his arguments, and believe that multiculturalism should be taught in the university, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Openmindedness will take much more than just minimal changes in curriculum. In order for works by different races and women to be judged and studied alongside works by white men, they have to be seen as equal to works by white men. They have to be studied for their literary content, not for the statement they make about feminism or race. We don’t just need to evaluate them by the same standards, we need to change the standards. The standards set by the traditional liberal arts education have been set by white males and are inherently biased. New standards need to be set that are as openminded as we want students to be. This is a trend that needs to be started way before college. A diverse curriculum should be taught throughout a person’s education, because that is what will produce well rounded, openminded individuals that will change the tradition of oppression in society.
Searle says, “We should not be embarrassed by the fact that a disproportionately large percentage of the major cultural achievements in our society have been made by white males.” [Searle, 118] To this, I say yes we should! We should be embarrassed that there are people who don’t see that this “disproportionately large percentage” is not due to the overwhelming intelligence of the white male, but to centuries of oppression. Our culture hasn’t nurtured the intellectual efforts of women or minorities, their ideas and pursuits have been repressed, probably out of fear. We have a society dominated by white males, it shouldn’t be surprising that literature is too. We need to change the way our society view women and minorities. Trying to do this by changing the curriculum of college students is pointless. We need to start from the beginning, with the children.
Children need to be taught that they exist as a part of the world, rather than just as a part of America. If worldliness is encouraged at a young age, it will replace the “us” and “them” mentali...
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...be expanded to new ideas and cultures. University education should be an extension of, not a replacement for, grade and high school education.
I think that, in general, we are on the road to a more openminded society. Children and young adults are more accepting than their parents and their grandparents, and I think if we encourage and appreciate this trend, it will continue on to their children. But, it is not the case in all families, and even if it were, family is only one of the influences in a child’s life. As they get older, they are increasingly influenced by outside factors, such as school, the media and culture. We need to encourage children and open their minds with all the tools we have available to us as a society. Children are the ones that will make up the bulk of the influential population in twenty years. Broadening their horizons is broadening the future’s horizons as well. As we change the way our society views women and minorities, as they are embraced as equals, we will start to see literary works of the same caliber, if not better than the works encompassed by the traditional canon. Then, we will be on the road to having a more diverse university education.
In the article How Banning Books Marginalizes Children, the author, Paul Ringel, states that approximately fifty-two percent of the books banned in the last ten years illustrate “diverse content”, such as race, religion, gender identity, etc. Ringel believes that attitudes about which books are “appropriate” for kids to read have too often suppressed stories about different cultures and life experiences. He basis his argument around the pretext that when libraries stop the banning it will allow kids to learn how to navigate imaginary worlds filled with differences and apply those lessons to their own lives.
Men spent there time doing things outside the home, such as visiting markets and going to the gymnasium; meanwhile, women were required to spend their time at home. Some families could afford to have female slaves, but those slaves did not do every single job, so the wives were required to tend to the household and infants, which made it not possible to leave their house. Women sought companionship in other women to talk about their daily tasks and gossip. Athenian women were clothed and secluded so that they would be concealed from the eyes of strange men. They wore simple clothing that was not eye catching. The chapter also talks about the death rates of women in their childbearing years and how the death rates increased during these times. Pomeroy uses a chart about what occurs during a women’s pregnancy that was fascinating and explains what happens during pregnancy, as well as rituals.
Modern women in America Are light years ahead of her poor Athenian sisters when it comes to independence and even her Roman sisters are left far behind in terms of freedom to dictate her own life.
To accurately determine what an educational institution should do with a book that contains some degree of cultural or moral shock is to analyze what the purpose of these institutions actually is. “Some parents brought the town’s segregated past and their dissatisfaction with the present into the discussion about the book” (Powell, 1). It is true that people from areas where slavery once ran rampant will be emotionally distressed with books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This may be understandable, but ultimately, schools are not purposed to dampen the discomfort of specific students and their families. Education Assistant Professor Jocelyn Chadwick states, “‘you have to remind them you are there to defend the text and not solve social issues’” (Powell, 1). Alleviating the cold reality from members of the community is neither a responsibility of educators nor a pedagogical concern. For the teachers and professors, the education of students, through whatever methods and textbooks, should far outweigh any of the culturally or morally shaky backlash that could follow. However, some disagree with this. “The CHMCA officially objected to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on the grounds that ‘the prejudicial effect of the racial characterizations outweigh any literary value that the book might have’...
In the play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo plays the role of the tragic hero. In the play Romeo is an extremely impulsive individual. and makes his decisions without considering the consequences. Romeo makes terrible decisions that end up killing him. What Romeo Failed to see is that every decision he made had an even worse reaction.
Hare writes that the color white symbolizes purity and black stands for evil and derogatory referent and that “... theirs brains,..., at last has been washed white as snow.”. At a young age, children are taught how to read children’s books. ‘“Why are they always white children?” asked by a five-year old Black girl” (Larrick, 63), as many books seen are only white. Nancy Larrick wrote an article about children’s book and argued how children’s books portrays only whites in books, while there are many non white children and white children across the United States that are reading these books about white children. Larrick also points out that across the country 6,340,000 million non white children are learning to read and understand the American way of life in books which either omit them entirely or scarcely mention them in it (63), and of the 5.206 children's book, only 394 included one or more blacks, which was an average of 6.7 per cent (64). Children’s books will not contain a black hero/heroine because in the books, being depicted as a slave or a servant, or better yet to ...
Hasty is to Romeo and Juliet as actions are to outcomes. The theme haste is defined in several points in the play, Romeo and Juliet, by Sir William Shakespeare. Through the characters, one can see the harm of these people’s impulsive actions that led up to the event of Romeo and Juliet’s suicides. The characters impulsive decisions led to complications in the play. The hastiness of the characters is seen directly through Lord Capulet, Juliet, and Romeo.
The social liberty experienced by Roman women developed dramatically throughout history, however, the Roman Empire is a specific point of contention. Women in Rome were defined as veritable
Writing has been an important part of every culture from the beginning of time. The illustrations of cavemen have evolved immensely. Today, there are millions of published books. In fact, there are over four hundred books published every month. What happens when these books turn into something more? Is there racism in our children's literature? Ironically, the renowned great works of our past is full of racism. The question that remains, how do we teach our children the great lesson that these brave authors intended?
Everyone comes from their own background, and has their own opinions about the world around them. They bring those thoughts and prejudices with them into every text they read, meaning they see what they expect to see. The author claims that close reading leads to ethical reading, ethical reading meaning the reader is listening to the author’s voice within the text, truly understanding and listening to that which the author is saying. Close reading forces the reader to temporarily abandon their preconceptions and “by concentrating on the details, we disrupt our projection; we are forced to see what is really there” (Gallop p.11). The author provides some historical context, in relation to the “new criticism” method of teaching. Between the 1950’s and 1970’s new criticism, “allowed students to appreciate the complexity of literary writing, to see the artful work, rather than merely themes and ideas.” (Gallop p.13). The issue with new criticism being that only “great” works or authors were considered “worthy” of analysis in that manner. Unfortunately, most work that was considered “great” within that period were written by men of European descent. Within the past few decades the multicultural movement has made reading lists in schools more diverse, making understanding the voice of authors more important than ever, as to not reinforce stereotypes and
In addition, unable to cope with that feelings leads to anxiety and depression which directly affect person health and life style. Obese person usually hesitate to come outdoor and be socialize, even if they want to, in fear of discrimination and feeling uncomfortable to do the adequate exercise, they just stay inside. A normal weight sets the stage of bone, muscles, brain, heart, lung and others to play their role smoothly and efficiently in their place for years. Obesity diminishes almost every aspect of health from circulation and respiration function to nervous system and memory. Obesity increases the risk of many debilitating and serious chronic
Being obese puts the person at risk of developing sicknesses and diseases like, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes (type 2), and some forms of cancer (prostate, breast and bowel.)
White supremacy and society in general alongside interprets the inability to see racism, classism, homophobia, and imperialism as forms of violence, it is both a reflection of and a mechanism to solidify white women’s privilege. That is, privileged white women cannot stand not being able to claim status as victims of gender oppression as we exposed through this course’s discussions when race, class, sexuality, disability, and nation complicate this status. The Color purple exposes this point magnificent when Sofia is forced to serve the major’s wife and child bear her kids for her. White women enjoy their roles of saviors and will readily cast women of color in order to capture the liberator roles for themselves when they confronted with their roles as oppressors they quickly turned to been victims as well.
Reckless actions lead to untimely deaths. In Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, both protagonists fight for their hopeless love. Bloodshed and chaos appear inevitable in fair Verona; Romeo and Juliet come from enemy households, the Montegues and the Capulets, who have sworn to defeat one another. The young and handsome Romeo weeps over his unrequited love for Rosaline, until he lays his eyes on Juliet. Strong and independent, Juliet seeks to escape her family’s will to marry her off to Paris, a kinsman of the Prince. Fate ties these adolescents’ lives together binding them to witness the ill-fortunes of Romeo and Juliet’s love. Romeo and Juliet prove themselves woefully impulsive through their words and actions, which ultimately lead them along a series of unfortunate mishaps.
... did not have tyrannous men overlooking them as men did to women in Athens. Although these two ancient societies were in the same country, the value of women and their freedom were very different. By comparing and contrasting we are able to better understand the concept of gender, how gender inequalities have changed from the past, and what we have learned about the history of women and gender. In analysis, the value of women in these two societies was greatly influenced by their role and contribution to society. Women in Sparta were valued more because they gave birth to potential warriors and since Sparta was a militarized state more warriors were needed. Spartan women hired lower class women for the chores. In Athens, women were less valued because household role such as taking care of the house, chores, and cooking were not equally important to society as men.