Chapter 3: Who Are Today’s Students in a Diverse Society? Notes

Chapter 3 delves into the demographics of the students in the United States and how that affects the state of their education. Students of today have constant emotional, racial, cultural, and age related needs that are similar to those of past students.  The chapter notes that it is inevitable that a teacher will encounter diversity in their classroom and that those students will have a number of diverse tastes and needs. A teacher must be tolerant of the diversity that they will encounter in their classroom because of the fact that they will be teaching students of different racial, cultural, and gender backgrounds. The chapter notes that there is a difference between race and ethnicity with race referring to people with common ancestry and ethnicity referring to people who are racially similar or different but have a common culture.  Public classrooms include a high percentage of minorities, and the number will continue to increase. However, the minority groups are unevenly distributed across the country. Because of this, more and more teachers will encounter students whose primary language is not English. Multiracial students also face the problem of having to choose one racial identity to identify with. This is where a teacher must be sensitive to whatever the student chooses to declare his or herself as. In the past, the United States was considered a melting pot with immigrants and those of other cultures having to assimilate. However, that concept was replaced with the idea of cultural pluralism, which is an understanding and appreciation of all cultures in the United States. However strong the wish for cultural pluralism is, the United States is not quite there. The diversity among each culture exists, but the equality does not. Schools must embrace diversity in order to shy away from favoring a single culture. The philosophy of teaching a diversity of students is called multicultural education. There have been five different approaches to multicultural education: teaching the exceptional and culturally different, human relations, single-group studies, multicultural approaches, and multicultural social justice. The chapter notes that multicultural education is not just for students of racial or ethnic minority, but for all. Many teachers also believe that attention to multicultural education is the best way to fight against prejudice among different cultures in the United States. Some educators, however, are worried about the dangers that multicultural education can cause, such as the destruction of common traditions. A method that these types of teachers prefer to use is culturally responsive teaching. Besides multicultural education, another problem that teachers face is the rise of non-English speaking students. These students, because of their difficulty with the English language, tend to fall behind in their studies. As a solution to this problem, in 1968, congress passed the Bilingual Education Act which provided the funds to create bilingual programs for students unable to cope with only English curriculum. There are four different types of bilingual education. There is the immersion model, in which the student is required to learn everything in English, English as a second language programs, which provide students with instruction in English geared toward language acquisition, the transitional model that provides intensive English-language instruction with some of their studies being taught in their native language, and maintenance education that preserves and builds upon the students' native language skills as they also strive to acquire a knowledge of English as a second language. Critics of bilingual education tend to favor the immersion model, however many educators continue to support bilingual education. Because of the No Child Left Behind act, ELL students must be tested once a year and meet the educational targets for adequate yearly progress. Bilingual education isn't the only diversity that school systems face. Students also have different learning styles and talents that aren't exactly faced by traditional schooling. According to Howard Garder, there are eight different intelligences that a student may posses: verbal-linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalist intelligence. Because of this, educators must have the ability to foster diverse student abilities. There are a various number of learning styles that a teacher must accommodate to, such as visual learning, auditory learning, kinesthetic learning, and tactile learning. Learning styles are based on the idea that all students have strengths and abilities, but each student may have a preferred way of using them. Another challenge that educators face is students with disabilities, also called special education. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act required that each student be provided with individualized education program which outlined long and short range goals for the student. In 1990, two more special education centric laws were passed with a framework of six principles. Educators and schools would be required to provide: fair and appropriate education, appropriate evaluation, an individualized education program, least restrictive environment, parent and student participation in decision making, and procedural safeguards for all special education students. School systems are wary of the trials that special education programs bring, such as costs. The concept of assistive technology has also arisen to aid special education students. These devices aid handicapped students in completing basic day to day goals. Teachers of students with disabilities are expected to avoid stereotypes and expect diversity. Another type of diverse students that teachers may face are gifted and talented, GT, students. These types of students are able to quickly grasp concepts and are exceptionally bright. GT students tend to have a high dropout rate as a result of being overlooked by educators. Efforts to identify and keep GT students in school have been recently developed. Many minorities are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. Each state has a program for gifted and talented students with 3 million students. There are two main strategies for teaching GT students, which are acceleration, in which students learn at a pace that commensurate with their abilities, and enrichment, in which students are proved with opportunities to go behind regular curriculum. Aside from the main group of diverse students, teachers must also be aware of adolescent subcultures. These include cliques. An example of cliques would be students who identify with terms such as "nerds", and "jocks". These type of subcultures tend to form in middle school. Aside from bilingual and GT students, another type of diverse student that educators must be aware about are students of gay and lesbian sexual orientation. The chapter notes that schools are hostile to homosexuals; however teachers must be sensitive to their feelings and not condone any sort of bullying that may take place inside the classroom. The issue is extremely controversial. To make the classroom safer for all types of students, teachers must establish rules that call for a zero tolerance policy when it comes to name calling or any type of bullying. The respect of all points of views should also be observed. In addition to those two concepts, teachers and students alike should also avoid making assumptions about other students' home life or sexual orientations. It is the educator's job to be role models for all types of students. The chapter closes with the question that it posed at the beginning, "What is a school and what is it for?" In order to keep their classrooms and school life running smoothly, an educator must be observant and tolerant of all types of students as well as backgrounds, cultures, learning styles, and orientation.