Since early american history, schools, like society, have addressed cultural diversity in different ways. In the colonial days, some attempts to adjust to cultural differences were made in the new york colony, but the dominant american culture was the norm in the general public, as well as most of the schools. As america approached the nineteenth century, the need for a common culture was the basis for the educational forum. Formal public school instruction in cultural diversity was rare, and appreciation or celebration of minority or ethnic culture essentially was nonexistent in most schools.

In the 1930's, the educators were in the progressive education movement, called for programs of cultural diversity that encouraged ethnic and minority students to study their heritage's. Now, these days in education, the term multicultural education never escapes a teacher's thoughts ryan, 26. What does the term multicultural education mean to you? i means different things to different people.

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For instance, to some minority communities, it means to foster pride and self esteem among minority students, like the progressive movement in the 1930's. Another example would be in the white communitites, that multicultural programs are designed to cultivate an appreciation of various cultural, racial, and ethnic traditions. Cortes defines multicultural education by the process by which schools help prepare young people to live with greater understanding, cooperation, effectiveness, and dedication to equality in a multicultural nation and inerdependent world cortes, when i observed at madison elementary in december, i expected the school would be multicultural in the sense of ethnic or racial backgrounds. Instead, i was very surprised to discover that the school was predominately white students, with only a handful of african american students in each classroom. I did find out that the wheeling island area was in very low status pertaining to income. Not only did over half of the students receive free or reduced lunch, but the students academic skills were below the national norm. I never realized what an effect of economic status can affect a student's academic progress.

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Of course there are out lying factors, the parent involvement was at a minimum because most families consisted of only one care taker. To make ends meet the single parent had to spend most of his/her time working for money to buy clothes, food, and to keep their children healthy. Madison elementary had made great strides to improve their efforts to better the students academic progress. The school had instilled different programs like a team, pre k classes, reading recovery, various health services, outreach to families, and many more to ensure that the students will succeed in their studies.

The role of the teacher at madison is to assist and guide the students through school with smooth transitions. This at times is impossible due to fact that some students in their classrooms have behavior disorders, not all of the students are on the same learning levels, and the teacher can only help the students at school, not at home. When dealing with multicultural issues in he classroom, teachers must guard against perpetuating racial and ethnic stereotypes, which is often done subconsciously and indirectly by failing to use linguistic qualifiers such as 'some,' 'many,' and 'most' when referring to cultural groups. Teachers must also keep in mind that the process of social development entails the successful interplay between an integrating function and differentiating function. The challenge is simple but significant: can we create places of learning where students are no longer strangers to themselves or to one another? the answer is clear: we must tamura, 24 25.

Students need to understand that they are participating in many different networks. They are involved in social networks, not just ethnic or racial ones however, their cultural background and experiences may indeed have an impact upon the nature of their participation in these other networks. Students also need to understand they are also individuals with talents, skills, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes ryan, 27. A goal for all students, american born or not, is to develop cross cultural acceptance, to have them develop strategies to work through their own prejudices and to sustain their own dignity when they become the targets of prejudice.

We as teachers must work very hard to teach children to sustain and protect our democratic way of life and to build a world culture of human beings who resolve disputes in ways that protect the rights of all higuchi, 70 71. The curriculum at madison is different than any other school i have been associated with. As i have stated in my journal, the language arts is the area of study with the biggest deficits. Madison has made great strides to improve in the area of language arts, they have improved many students' skills. They will continue their efforts until the students at madison are academically strong in the area of language arts. When using multicultural curriculum, teachers must provide opportunities for taking perspectives as a way of helping all students appreciate other points of view, which will help them to identify, through contrast and comparison, their own personal characteristics as individuals. With this in mind, one is then able to establish an identity, along with a sense of control over it.

Teachers need to develop an awareness for individual characteristics as a prerequisite to developing instructional strategies that will meet the learning style of each student. Teaching to a variety of learning styles will increase the probability of student achievement, thereby leading to a greater internal locus of control and improved self esteem ryan, 27 28. Some think that cortes has the right idea by introducing five fundamental concepts that all elementary schools should introduce to help their students develop greater insight into human diversity. He believes that students need to understand the significance of groups racial, ethnic, gender, cultural, religious, and others. In addition, they need to understand that each individual can belong to many different groups. Belonging to this group may influence the ways an individual thinks, acts believes, perceives, and may be perceived by others.