Reflection Paper#3: Multiculturalism

The term multicultural encompasses numerous categories, race, ethnicity and culture. It however did not talk about physical abilities such as being physically disabled. The school I went to had both physically disabled children as well as “normal” children interacting together. It was actually an experiment and as such the school was named The Hope Valley Experimental Primary school. The term primary refers to elementary. The other culture that was evident in that school was the students whose parents were Rastafarians. Those students wore the uniform as the other children but would wear a head covering (to cover their dread locks) one that could be described as a huge skully. Other difference was that they took lunch to school which was quite different from what was prepared at school.
At that time in the late 1970’s early 1980’s it was taboo to be a Rastafarian, and people were still fearsome that their children would contract the poliomyelitis. The teachers did not do anything different in their teachings for either group of children. In the fifth grade my teacher who was well travelled, exposed us to countries of the Caribbean on a field trip to a theological college where the student were from various islands in the Caribbean. She had us talking to the students and later on, had to do a research project on that island and present it so that other students could become of aware and learn about other cultural difference. This approach was the contribution approach.
My secondary education was the melting pot of multiculturalism. The school I went to in Jamaica was considered one of the best. And as such, the who’s who in the Jamaican society sent their children there; including numerous ambassadors and their embassy workers. The mix included but was not limited to blacks from the Caribbean, United States of America and Africa; Hispanics from Ecuador and Cuba; Indians from the Caribbean and India and different generation of Syrians, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese. More than 40% of the students had backgrounds other than Black. The teachers I felt did not do anything out of the realm to encourage, transform, contribute to the multiculturalism of the school.
For the first year of secondary education it was mandatory to take Spanish. This was mainly because the island nation was in such close proximity to Cuba and the large Central and South American presence. The second year a student could opt to take French along with the Spanish class already offered History and geography were a part of the curriculum and through these subjects area multiculturalism was taught. If you did not take those subjects after the third year of secondary school, like I did; you would miss out on that education. We learned about other cultures from curiosity of one student to another.
The approach I would want my teachers to take in secondary school is the contribution approach, where each student would tell or contribute something about our background. Understanding and embracing our difference can only empower us. It subsequently becomes quite beneficial when travelling and you are aware of the norms of that society or culture already.