Model 7 Last Blog Post for TLS 412

• Something that had surprised me about multicultural education is that it is pervasive and is a philosophy of life. It's not one day out of the year when people bring their favorite food to class, it is not just one lesson plan on the Native American history. It is ongoing and embedded within every interaction as a teacher.  It is a lot about relationships also. This means taking into consideration people's personal experiences in life and learning from them. The learning comes from both the student and teacher. 
• A new insight I have learned from this class is that being involved in extracurricular activities helps a student to stay out of negative influences. I think the lesson I loved the most was when we learned about Lau v Nichols. I think as an educator it is so very important to be knowledgeable about this topic, and I feel through this course I understand the case more and why it was so important. It deals with our civil rights, which are so important to us in this country. Our civil rights protect us from having unfair treatment in life. Whether that may be work or in a school setting, we each must have equal opportunity. Now, this equal opportunity being said; I believe equity is more important than equality. For example, the very first model we had, we talked about what the differences were. I gave the example that equity if giving everyone what they need, and equality if giving everyone the same. So let's say we were going to pick apples from a tree and we passed out stepping stools for the average height in order to reach the apples. Well the leave out the tall people, because when they stand on the stepping stool they are pushed too far into the tree, and the shorter people are not even able to reach the apples at all. That would be an example of treating everyone with equality. Equity would be giving everyone the appropriate height stepping stool so that way everyone is able to pick apples. 
• I think what has challenged me the most in this course is talking about racism and discrimination. Especially during our discussion that was really hard because it was just me hiding behind a screen and typing what I felt, it was my voice. I remember for the discussion I actually typed out what I was going to say because I did not want to hurt anyone's feelings when I was talking. I think it was good to practice talking about those issues though because when I have my own classroom one day, I need to be comfortable talking about them with the class.
• That leads into the next built point perfectly. I will bring a multicultural education into my classroom as an educator. I love how this philosophy acknowledges that this is an ongoing process. Because it will take time for me to get used to the philosophy considering most of the education i have been exposed to has been monocultural education.  It will take me constant reflection and self awareness during this process. It is not going to be easy, but it will be worth it because I will be creating a more social justice environment by having a class that values multicultural education. 
• My hopes in becoming a multicultural person and teacher is that I will make people feel important, valued, and comfortable. I want people to know that however they choose to identify is okay, and is good. I would never want to continue to oppress a culture or group of people like it has been present in our countries history. To me it is sad that many of the people who wanted to civilize or colonize our country were Christian or Catholic, and I myself identify as Christian and I feel like a lot of people are mad at that religion for the damage that was done. But really, they caused so much hurt and damage; but it's a great example how to not group people into a category and to look at them as an individual. Because although I am christian, I don't believe what happened in our history was okay.