SPSE 6810 #3 Multicultural Curriculum

After reading the three articles I agree on these two statements: it is impossible to please everyone, and a nation is going to teach it's kids a national education. It is next to impossible to form a curriculum for a large group of people that will please everyone. This task becomes even harder when the group is diverse. Each and every person has an idea of what is vital to learn, and what should not be included in the curriculum.

I fully believe that the people involved in creating a curriculum are doing their best and including what they think is vital. Since the people who are deciding the curriculum are probably from the nation in which the curriculum will be used; they will value similar national events. Nations always teach history from a very biased viewpoint. As an American, learning history in a TN school, I always learned about WWII, the Germans, and the Japanese. I did not know about all the numerous times we bombed Japan. During my first lesson of teaching English in Japan; I had a student ask me why America bombed them. I later found out the student knew nothing about Pearl Harbor. It is the same for Vietnam. I toured around Vietnam some and saw a lot of the devastation left from the war that I had never heard about. What was worse were all the people mutilated and mutated from the war.

I don't think multiculturalism is bad; it is just difficult(at times). I think it provides the opportunity to take all the good qualities from individual cultures to make a more blended one. In order for disputes to be settled and curriculum discussed successfully, everyone involved must be prepared to be patient, culturally sensitive, and flexible. Deciding a curriculum is challenging for anyone involved. Deciding what to teach in history is going to be even more stressful and taxing and everyone must be willing to make compromises.