Importance Of Teaching Cultural Tolerance

Culture is the Backbone of a society, when something/someone tries to alter it or go against it everyone will notice. In this issue pointed out by Ruth Macklin, we look at the problems that can arise when an individual’s culture and autonomy clash. Every year there at least 30 million immigrants from all over the world that move to the United states of America, making America one of the most culturally diverse country in the world. Keeping this in mind, we will focus on Ruth Macklin’s issue of Multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is the co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles. Critics argue that we associate culture with a society, community and or family, but rarely with a single individual, thus placing it above the individual person. In this paper we are going to look at four different scenarios on from Ruth Macklin’s article.

Nowadays, racism, politics, and prejudices are the cause of boycotting, riots, and injured people lately, but racism is not the issue. We are constantly surrounded by several different types of race, skin color, and culture. Today, people do not pay attention if a person is different because we are all equal, but with different background and we are worth the same. We have all spoken to a person with a different heritage and shared several different priceless moment with at least of person who is different. Cultural pluralism is the best hope for a just and cohesive society.

One of the difficulties of accepting multiculturalists is that defining a multicultural society, or institution seems to be determined by one's perspective. A commonly held view suggests that being

Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, Seventh Edition, by Donna M. Gollnick and Philip C. Chinn. Published by Prentice-Hall/Merrill. Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc.

This perspective targets all the limitations of multiculturalism and works to solve them in a different approach. He doesn’t believe that affiliations should be anything other than completely voluntary and without force by one entity unto another. We can work to solve a problem unless we are willing and happy to work together, not because we have to work together. We also have to recognize the up and coming

However previous to this discussion the classroom was a learning environment that was systematically equipped to assimilate. We as students fell into the curriculum but often times had difficulty identifying with the material presented. Essentially, the presence of diversity is useless if we do not dig deeper into each culture represented. Equally important, is the significance of each culture finding themselves within the curriculum. When topics such as racial tensions in America are presented in the classroom individuals from different cultural backgrounds and walks of life are not only present but seen vividly throughout the courses of society. This transition from a homogenous community to an imagined community can at times be

Tolerance, respect, and acceptance can be taught by allowing the students the opportunities to experience different cultures first hand. One could do this many ways, but some of the most effective would include going to a museum or reenacting the life of one particular group. After the student experiences for themselves that different groups of people do not choose to live a difficult life as seen, maybe the student could be taught to have more respect for different groups of people. One would not want to strictly put all of their focus on one group, but rather realize the group they experienced is not the only group living difficultly. Another way is showing the student how the rest of the world views them. If the student realizes they are slightly different than others, others are slightly different than them, but we all have a lot of major aspects in common, they may become more tolerant and acceptant of the world around them that they themselves are an equal part of. The teaching of this would lead to the knowledge of history, the ability to learn coping strategies through

Cultural diversity, or multiculturalism, is based on the idea that cultural identities should not be discarded or ignored, but rather maintained and valued. The foundation of this belief is that every culture and race has made a substantial contribution to American history. However, many people remain opposed to the idea of multiculturalism, or cultural diversity awareness, while others often support it and yet have no clear idea of how it should be taught. The diversity of the United States is truly astounding, as many different ethnic and racial groups have contributed to the social,

The first thing to identify is that there is a lack of knowledge about other cultures. Second, there are people that have national and racial prejudices at John Brown University. And third, the lack of knowledge can lead to the misconceptions that create prejudices. To solve this, I have laid in a philosophy of the article National prejudices that says “It is possible to love one's own country [race] without hating the natives of other countries [races]” (Goldsmith 7). The idea is to implement this philosophy to most of the classes at John Brown University trough relating the topics with an international point of views. In fact, it should not be so difficult because this philosophy is related to Christian values such as love, unity, humble, and kindness.

I think that the best way to improve children’s understanding and respect for different cultures is to expose them to other cultures and encourage them to be inquisitive and ask questions. For example, it could be a good idea to put up a map of the world or pictures of flags from different countries so that the children see this and can discover a curiosity for the world. (Chen, et al., 2011) This also allows children from other backgrounds to see that their heritage is included and accepted at the centre. Another way to entwine a variety of cultures into the centre is to ensure that the toys that the children play with represent different cultures. For example, the centre could include dolls of many different races, include a range of play

In order for a society to be great, it needs to promote and encourage the fair treatment of everyone equally. All of this can be accomplished with the once radical idea of multiculturalism is a belief that encourages the settlement of communities that contain different aspects of cultural behaviors and thinking. Throughout the history of the United States, the concept of different cultures interacting with each other has affected what has become modern America. In America, the flow of continuous mass immigration has greatly contributed to the economy, political atmosphere, and the demographics of the country.

"Multiculturalism" is the co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles”.

People that are taught different things about their culture view their lives completely differently. Education is very important and is absolutely huge in preparing people for the real world and to live the rest of their lives meaningfully and with knowledge. A big part of this is education on culture. In Dianne Ravitch’s essay “Multiculturalism Yes, Particularism No”, Ravitch explains that there are two ways people are taught about culture, multiculturalism, or cultural pluralism, and particularism. The pluralist approach teaches people to recognize and embrace that there is one common American culture that has been created in this country and that it has been created by many different groups.

Culture lives within every human on earth. Societies and countries thrive off of diverse cultural and different backgrounds, working together to survive in a community. The United States is privileged to be a home that welcomes diversity and different cultures. However, with different social norms sometimes two worlds can collide, creating bigotry or unjust assumptions due to a lack of cultural competence. Education systems need to be aware and appropriately train teachers to be open minded and understanding of all ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures.

With the shifting cultural texture and demographics of the United States (Banks, 2006b; Irvine, 2003), redefining multicultural education has become imperative. There are many views on the benefits and/or shortcomings of the multiculturalization of education. The question is not whether a multicultural education should be adopted but it is rather what we understand from multicultural education and how we are going to initiate such a reform within an educational system when we cannot even define ‘multicultural.’ “The awareness of one’s own assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes is a first step to be able to positively interact and learn from others. In this process