Blog #4: Multiculturalism in Curriculum

Adam Waxler believes that although we must move away from the textbook, we don't necessarily need to move away from the curriculum. In Multiculturalism in School Curriculum, he points out that different cultures and perspectives should be incorporated throughout units of the curriculum. Traditional curriculum can be taught in a way that addresses the various perspectives and allows students to draw their own conclusions. It creates a student-centered environment where the students are actively engaged in learning. Waxler is suggesting that we not try to change the wheel completely. Doesn't it make more sense to add to or slightly alter the existing curriculum instead of completely changing the entire curriculum? The core subjects still need to be taught...students need to learn the three R's. With his method, students are able to take ownership of the knowledge and draw their own conclusions. Therefore, the knowledge is more likely to be retained.

E.D. Hirsc maintains that there are two kinds of multiculturalism: cosmopolitanism and ethnocentrism. In his article, Hirsc promotes cosmopolitan, centrist curriculum which exhibits the following characteristics:
1) encourages knowledge of and sympathy towards the diverse cultures of the world
2) fosters respect for every child's home culture as well as for the cosmopolitan school-based culture
3) gives all children competence in the current system of language and allusion that it is dominant in the nation's economic and intellectual discourse

Hirsc points out that a "cosmopolitan, centrist curriculum will initiate evolutionary rather than evolutionary change in American culture.

My own experiences in high school are far from those encouraged by Waxler and Hirsc. Granted, it has been about 20 years since I was in high school. (wow...that's depressing) Things were a lot different then. We were taught more procedurally than children in today's schools. It was more kill and drill than student-centered. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was not exactly a culturally diverse school. It was primarily white and black students, though not equally represented. We had the typical cliques, but I do not recall any racial issues. Aside from typical high school drama, we all got along. Boring, but true. However, I do believe that had Waxler and/or Hirsc's ideas been implemented, we would have graduated high school truly knowing one another and understanding each other's cultures.