DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

1) Should children of immigrants parents be allowed the same educational opportunities as children born here in the U.S.?

2) We often discuss how great it is to integrate cultural diversity within the classroom. I am curious to know in what ways does integrating cultural diversity harm our children inside of the classroom?

 

1) Children of immigrant parents should be allowed the same educational opportunities because this is America, The land of opportunity." Opportunities are not really available without an education and since immigrants are who made this country what it is, they should have opportunities just like the citizens.

2) Integrating cultures in the classroom can be harmful if done the wrong way. For example, I am doing research about culturally responsive curriculum now and if I talk badly about my Mexican students and their culture to the African American students I am opening the door for disrespect. Not only will it affect them now, it will also affect both parties in the future. The Mexicans will and/or can grow up to hate themselves and the African American students will and/or can grow up thinking they are superior, which leads to other things.

 

Cultural competency benefits children for a lifetime. Being able to interact with people of different cultures is a necessity living in America. Our neighbors, classmates, bosses, teachers, and people who we interact with daily aren't always from the same culture as we are. So what else is there to do than to learn about them and get along? If not, we will have a very uncomfortable life because everybody is different. It starts in the classroom and at home because as we are children, we see different people in our schools (I had a lot of Jewish and white teachers growing up).

I believe the right way is to talk about all cultures' achievements, successes and everything else equally. Educators should not show their bias toward a culture because that would be harmful to the students. All cultures have positive and negative aspects and it is up to us to teach our students about them equally.

One way I am doing this for my research is to let the children see that other people struggle like them. I have a book about Mexican migrant workers and I have another book about different people migrating and the hardships they face. That way, when we read about the Mexicans the other students cant make fun of them because their people struggled also.

1)Everything: Absolutely not.

Open their eyes: Absolutely.

Some things in the articles we've read so far enlightened me. Since I've been at this school I have learned things about cultures that I never knew before. Learning about it makes me curious to want to learn more and it is up to me, and other educators, to educate ourselves so we will know more. The more we know, the better we will be able to communicate and understand other cultures.

Yes, they are in their own worlds inside of a huge, unknown universe but I remember trying to learn basic Spanish to pass the class here and my brain was hurting so I can only imagine what it must feel like for non-English speaking immigrants in America. And, lets remember they cant read either so imagine going to a store or a restaurant and not being able to order off of the menu.

It is important for parents to educate themselves. At the school where I am student teaching there are many parents who cannot speak English so they need translators. That affects the students because they speak one language at home then go to school and have to speak English and the transition can be hard and may make them fall behind their classmates.

Images do impact children but parents and teachers have to make all children feel good about themselves. A great example of this is black girls do sometimes feel incompetent when compared to females of other races so they add the eyelashes, the weave, the makeup, etc. Nothing is wrong with that if you know who you are and accept it. That video "I Love My Hair" that was on Sesame Street can be shown to little girls to help them grow up and appreciate themselves and understand that beauty is not just what they see in the videos and on tv. I don"t know if it will play but here is the link to the video if you never saw it: youtu.be/...

I love the fact that you said first we have to believe that children of immigrants have inherent intellectual capabilities. If we don't believe that then we will never be able to help or educate them.

I like the discussion, however, after a while the answers were being repeated in different ways. Next time, maybe other people can ask questions for everyone to answer.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.