Diversity

I grew up in a military town, and this fact allotted me the luxury of growing up in a very diverse environment. While I am grateful for this, I am more grateful for the fact that I never knew how lucky I really was. For the most part, I was blissfully unaware of how lucky I was to grow up in such an diverse environment. My friends and I acknowledged the differences and made jokes accordingly. In high school, I was always aware of the way my high school was perceived by others in my town. Few people expected groups from my high school to do well in things, and we were generally looked down upon. At the time, I just assumed it was because we weren't from the more affluent side of town. However, later I realized that it likely had just as much to do with the racial diversity as it did with the socioeconomic status of the students. Either way, it was a shame, as almost all of the students I went to school with had parents who were in the military.

I honestly cannot say that I remember that a large number of things that seemed to be used as a form of social control. There were some incidents that happened, a few I wrote about in my previous entry, that were easily associated with race, but nothing I can easily associate with wide-spread social control Not to say that there weren't moments or things that would have been classified as social control, but few that I can readily remember. One moment that has always strongly remained with me is from kindergarten. My teacher was out for a large part of the year, and we had many substitute teachers. My mother, who was Asian, told me that if I forgot my teacher's name, I could just refer to her as "teacher." In Asian cultures, this is a very acceptable practice and is the standard where my mother is from. And even though I was only five years old and respectful student, the teacher barked at me in a harsh tone, "Don't call me teacher! How would you like it if I called you student?!" While this seems rather melodramatic, for my five year old self, this was terribly painful. I associated this scolding with advice from my mother. And even though this happened twenty years ago, I remember the experience clearly and painfully. And for me, it very much seemed as if it was an act of assimilation.

Again, I do not reflect upon my past and see social control as a predominant memory. Reflecting, however, I've realized that despite the number of different cultures represented in my school, this was never recognized. While this would have been enjoyable for me, there were never any incidents that seemed to merit such activities. Naturally, the curriculum was problematic, as it was very European based. I specifically remember asking my chemistry if anyone other than white men made contributions to science. He attempted to reassure me that women and other minorities has important contributions, however, he failed to actually provide any examples.

Although the two views are conflicting, I found myself agreeing on several points of both authors. Waxler makes several important points that I wholeheartedly agree with. The histories and cultures of several groups should not be taught in isolation. They should be interwoven to create a whole history and interweave with one another. American history has always existed with a variety of peoples, so these histories should not be taught in isolation. His bottom line is most important-students can be taught to think critically and apply the knowledge learned about other parts of American history and this will translate into success on standardized tests.

However, I do understand the importance of finding a certain level of commonality between people of various backgrounds. A post-racial society has certain implications that there is a certain level of equality amongst all people, and this would naturally be an ideal situation. I agreed that we were doing our Black children a disservice if we taught our kids about Black history, and they were not about to read at grade level or do advanced math. But at the same time, if find that the differences between various cultures beautiful and important apart of our American identity.