What Will It Take To Reform Education
Manifesto For Change
Are the issues surrounding education, really education at all? Perhaps not, and this is easily visible when taking the time to watch the local news in anytown USA. Crimes against color plague the hallways of many schools forcing some to ask whether the problem lies inside the textbooks or in what is lacking within them.
Diversity, can be described as the cornerstone for this great country, with its many inhabitants ancestry originating from all over the globe, with faces filled with rich color, and yet, understanding and tolerance of others is nearly invisible. America's history details its strife and tulmoltuous pursuits of manifest destiny, but this only paints a partial picture for young children to see. Eurpopean history is written within each and every text book and as interesting as these stories are, they do not convey the struggles and hardships or successes that reflect the students who read them. Although they may be impacted by reading such history, some are unaware of their own family's inception into American culture and students around them are even more oblivious to the novel stories that surround them in their classrooms.
So if understanding of others does not come from text then children are left to inscribe there understanding through media such as; movies. music, videos, stereotypes and lastly, books or plays. Although they may be semi acurate betrayals of the lives of a small few minorities these unrealistic ideologies focus only on a small group, ie., gangs, violence or drug use. Displaying minorities in this particular light, leaves children faced with very narrow views of how minorities interract in everyday life. They are left to assume the rest and these assumptions can leave the least understood child in the room, historically speaking, paying the ultimate price.
Who better to bridge this gap of cultural understanding than the teachers who shape and mold this countries youth, and what better tools to use than recreated textbooks that highlight every students experience. By incorporating the histories of all whom inhabit America we will have class rooms who are not only mentally equipped to empathize with the child sitting across from them, but also allow them to focus on learning rather than their differences. In summary to incorporate every, race, creed and national origin into history will in turn create a positive future for todays youth.
