Human diversity in education

Educational Diversity

WHAT TYPE of SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION IS NESSARY to ADEQUATELY SERVE a LINGUISTICALLY and CULTURALLY DIVERSE POPULATION?

To adequately address the needs of an increasingly socially and linguistically diverse population of students, the focus of all schools must become narrower and more focused upon instilling basic skills in the students body, and yet the focus of these same schools must also become more broad in terms of the cultures these schools embrace as part of their curriculums in all subject matters. Although the notion of 'more narrow and more broad' may seem like a paradox, embracing such a contradiction is the only way schools can educate the children of tomorrow.

What words have a long a sound and what words have a short a sound? Vowels. Constants -- the difference between 'sh' and 'ch.' The basics of fractions and the multiplication tables. Although these lesson plans on their surface may not seem gripping as staging a play about the founding of a country or writing creative essays about tooth decay, students must learn to walk before they can crawl. Teachers, even if they may dislike the appearance of standardized testing, must come to grips with the fact that standardized educational measurements are how schools are judged and will be judged in the future. Test scores also determine how district funds are allocated, and increasingly, if students are promoted to the next grade, regardless of their teacher's opinion.

Thus, when faced with a linguistically diverse classroom of students who may have had limited exposure to education before walking through the door of kindergarten or first grade, teachers must work to make sure that students learn the basics. One way to help teachers to do so in committed school districts might be the institution of having summer school, if a full Head-Start program is not available, for preschool age children, to begin to instill the discipline of learning subject matter in the classroom. By making students familiar and comfortable with authorities outside of their home environments, students are more prepared to meet the educational challenges of the classroom, to receive a greater exposure to the language of classroom instruction, and also to become more solidly grounded in English language skills and simple English vocabulary. Resource room instruction on a one-on-one basis in reading and ESL can provide additional assistance to overworked teachers.