Newsletter Six<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one of a series of newsletters written by Peter Porr and Paul Sjordal between September 1993 and December 1995 for the purpose of explaining the South-East Asia Center\u2019s Building Bridge\u2019s<\/strong> objectives, philosophy, and approach to learning.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION REVISITED<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n For two years now, South-East Asia Center’s Multicultural Program\nhas challenged conventional wisdom in\nthe field of multicultural education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At first glance SEAC’s model multicultural curriculum targetting\nchildren in the multiethnic\nUptown-Edgewater’s McCutcheon and Goudy Schools, seems not to be all that out\nof the ordinary. Curriculum focuses on developing self-esteem, positive social interaction\nskills and cooperation skills with a goal of ultimately\nmore peaceful, productive classrooms and society. Students examine prejudice, stereotyping,\ndiscrimination, victimization, conflict resolution, peer pressure, goal\nsetting, problem solving, parenting, values, teamwork, communication and life\nskills all geared, of course, to age level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n TOURIST APPROACH <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n However, SEAC discovered that many schools’ multicutural efforts,\nutilize, largely a “touristapproach.” The approach emphasizes\nthe value of observing and less frequently also studying superficial<\/em> ethnic differences<\/em>\nin ethnic dress, dances, music, food, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the touristapproach might be useful in limited\nsituations, SEAC wanted a new, more profound<\/em> approach that would delve\ninto the reasons<\/em> we do things the same or differently while stressing our commonalties of basic\nhuman needs<\/em> — the root of human\nbehaviors in any and all cultures. Only then with this understanding can we be\nempowered and motivated to solve our personal, family and societal problems in\nthis new multicultural world, in short, ” to get along.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n SEAC also challenged the conventional wisdom that teaching ethnic\npride is the best way to accomplish self pride and societal equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ETHNIC PRIDE and ETHNIC STUDIES APPROACHES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ethnic studies although meant to foster self pride and societal\nequity have often made some of the same mistakes as Eurocentric studies.\nPitting one ethnic group’s history and accomplishments against another’s is\nultimately destructive to both minorities and to the society at large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These studies in an effort to bolster minority egos often warp and glorify ethnic history and culture. The “great” empires often become those that have been successful at (often interethnic) conquest. Peacemakers or cultures that were able to avoid war– such as Eskimos, Hmong and other various hilltribesmen — are rarely glorified. How wars coul]<\/a>d have been avoided is rarely if ever studied and warriors, not peacemakers, become the heroes and the “great” figures of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such studies, furthermore, tend to exacerbate an interethnic\ncompetition thus ironically and tragically increase interethnic tension and\nviolence rather than reduce it. Such studies institutionalize humankind as\nseparate and chronically hostile human beings, rather than bringing us together\nas beings of a single race with the same common human and global needs as other\nhuman beings sharing space on a single, ever-shrinking planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, such studies do not teach the reality that all peoples\nhave skeletons in their ethnic closets, and all peoples still have cultural\nflaws which handicap individual and group fulfillment — this reality-bending,\nselective history making and inattention to clearheaded “Whys” vs\nethnocentric “Whats,” only perpetuates minority status and self\nimage. Withholding of truth and\nknowledge are characteristic of tyranny, not of liberation. On an individual level, lack of knowledge and\nunderstanding translates into disempowerment. Even worse, warping of reality\ntranslates into neuroses which prevent ability to effectively cope with one’s\nenvironment. Unwittingly we are depriving our own youth of the tools and skills\nneeded to become mentally healthy and mature individuals with the wherewithal to cope in a modern, complex\nsociety where reasoning, knowledge and understanding of how things work is\nessential to a modicum of survival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interethnic Competition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, when interethnic competition becomes the basis for\nself-esteem, several potential counterproductive results may arise. First, what\nhappens to the self-esteem of all the peoples of cultures that don’t have the\nkind of history defined as “great” by the powers that be? How do these ethnic histories affect the\nself-esteem of Hmong slash-and-burn hilltribesmen, of Aleut hunter-fishermen or\nof American Indian tribes all but decimated by invading Europeans? And how do\nthey affect the image others have of such peoples? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we all begin to believe that\nconquest, empire building, great monument building, city building,\ntechnological development translate uniformly into social progress? Are all the pastoral, hunting and gathering,\nslash-and-burn societies and ethnic Americans whose forebears originated from\nthose societies to be looked down upon as inferior? Does any one stage of\nhistorical development of society have a monopoly on purity or sin? Should we be teaching that each culture’s\nmores, customs and ways of living are related to its historical environment and\nstage of technological development more than to a modern concept of what is\nright, wrong and great? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Might it be wiser to understand these different types of societies\nand what makes or made each work and not\nwork so well than to be setting up a competition among ethnic groups based upon\na poorly thought out set of values including inter-ethnic conquest,\nurbanization, technological development, etc. Might some values in certain\ndegrees work better in some types of cultures than others, e.g., respect for\nthe old and for tradition. Might some values of some of our ancestors be\nfunctional values today, e.g., respect for nature, focus on common vs.\nindividual welfare. In short, what can\nwe learn from other cultures in terms of understanding ourselves and our\nsociety and can we become broader and more open in our thinking from exposure\nto the ways of other peoples?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, what happens when the wiser, the more critical, discover that\nthe ethnic studies are filled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies? They are certainly not then more enamored of\ntheir ethnic group for its hand in foisting this fiction upon them, and their\nself-esteem is certainly not bolstered by the discovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the ethnic studies approach places the individual self-esteem\nupon a fragile specter of mistaken identity. The individual’s image of his or\nher own<\/em> personal <\/em>identity — his\/her self<\/em> image– has not been fundamentally<\/em> changed, but\nrather that image of an outside entity has been changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Holiday Celebration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>Although it is not new to educators that some holiday celebration is\ninter-ethnically insensitive, the practice remains widespread and the\nrepercussions seem yet to be fully understood and appreciated by teachers,\nmedia, toy makers, law makers, governmental units trying to impress ethnic\ngroups and especially by the ethnic coalitions themselves that lobby for the\ncelebration of holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following are some of the\ninappropriate, stereotypical, superficial, or simply innaccurate \nmessages that we are taught on ethnic holidays — and alternative\napproaches:<\/p>\n\n\n\n St. Patrick’s Day<\/strong>: Irish\nlike green, leprechauns and drinking. Alternative: “Feed the Hungry\nDay.” Talk about Irish, North African, Chinese and other famines past and\npresent, why they occurred, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columbus Day<\/strong>: Columbus discovered\nAmerica.Alternative: “Newcomers Day.” Talk about all of the\nnumerous peoples who have settled in America, their impact — good, bad or\notherwise — and how they have gotten\nalong or not and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanksgiving Day<\/strong>: Our forefathers were\nnoble struggling pioneers escaping from persecution. Alternative: Focus on sensitivity to those who don’t\n“have” and how we might make our society more sensitive to others in\nneed, not as powerful, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Luther King Day<\/strong>: The\nperception is that this is a “Black holiday.” Alternative:\n“Peace Day.” Celebrate peace makers and peaceful solutions throughout\nworld history and how this magic was achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christmas and New Year<\/strong>: Everyone\nis or should be Christian. Schools, cities, etc. condone and support this\nreligion over others. Alternative: “Winter Solstice” and “Lunar\nNew Year.” Many cultures throughout the world for thousands of years have\ncelebrated holidays around the solar and lunar new years. Why do they all\ncelebrate these occasions, and what do the celebrations have in common? What calendars are used throughout the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n *** <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sports and Multicultural Education <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although sports is generally not seen as multicultural<\/em>\neducation per se, sports is seen as\nplaying a crucial role in minority<\/em> education and minority<\/em> youth\ndelinquency prevention. \nUnfortunately, we see again\nconventional wisdom supporting sports activities which are supposed to teach skills\nof cooperation and teamwork, build self\nesteem, “keep kids off the street” \nand “burn off kids extra energy.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead,\nsports <\/strong>represents a unique\nmultibillion dollar private and public sector industry including public school\nprograms, university programs, park department programs, social service\nprograms, professional sports businesses, manufacturers of sports equipment,\nadvertisers and media sports departments all \nwith various objectives which may or may not include the welfare of\nchildren. The historical evolution of\nsports, likewise, often had little to do with concepts of modern education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead,\nwe find youth spending time and energy supporting sports teams for the sake of\nego gratification rather than time enhancing their own skills to make themselves\n<\/em>more competent to be happy and successful. And again ego gratification from\noutside entities is a hollow sort of gratification which does not make for a\nmaturity or mental health. It can be argued that many popular sports commonly\ndiscourage opportunities for communication, higher order thinking and\nsensitivity to anyone outside a tight circle. It can be further argued that\nmany sports stimulate violence through violent and, or physically aggressive\nbehavior that is condoned and encouraged by authorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally,\nmany popular sports, it can be again be argued , damage as many egos as they\nbolster. Competition assures that we\ncreate at least 50% losers in many sports. Likewise, short people, fat people,\nclumsy people, females, many immigrants who are short and frail and often have\nnot had a lifetime of experience with a sport are all placed on an uneven\nplaying field — if allowed on the playing field at all. Of course , with the\ngreat emphasis that our society and educational system places on sports,\nexclusion or lack of ability to win are an erosion of ego rather than a bolster to ego. Minority often overdepend on outside entities\nfor personal self-esteem in the area of sports. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nis not surprising then that the massive impact on children’s lives often,\ndespite conventional wisdom, contributes to a \ndistraction of attention from activities promoting self<\/em> esteem,\nmastery of the tools of self and societal understanding, from skills of\ninterpersonal communication understanding and translates attention to —\nmid-night basketball, more inner city courts, media hype of sports teams etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Holocaust<\/strong>\/Persecution<\/strong>\nStudies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Can we justify\nfocusing on one? or two? Haven’t many, many ethnic groups suffered holocaust,\ngenocide, enslavement, persecution? What\nties them together? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we need to\nstudy why — the dynamics of … — more thoroughly than we do? What causes the hate? How can we prevent such\ntragedies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are any\nnegative effects of teaching an ethnic group that they have been persecuted? Is\nthere a way to teach such studies\nwithout the negative repercussions? What are we trying to accomplish by such\nstudies? <\/p>\n\n\n\n TEACHERS URGED\nUS TO START EARLY<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As we started\nworking with teachers at McCutcheon, they urged us to concentrate on grades one\nto three, because they believed that children could be captured by the\n\u201cstreets\u201d by fourth grade or earlier. They believed that character education\nwould be much more effective than character reformation. We followed their\nadvice and have been very pleased with the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cooperation\nfrom dedicated, McCutcheon and Goudy teachers has been excellent. Their\nconstructive criticism has been invaluable. Initially all McCutcheon classes\nwere scheduled for two thirty minute periods per week. Some now are 40 minutes\nonce a week. The classes for 6th-8th graders at Goudy are longer and held once\na week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We found that many McCutcheon students, especially first graders, brought a lot of negative baggage that makes instilling a cooperative attitude a challenge. These students have learned such messages as: \u201cIf I don\u2019t win, I\u2019m a loser; if I share, I\u2019ll get cheated; if I ignore a threat, I\u2019ll be taken advantage of; if I don\u2019t fight for my position (literally and figuratively), I won\u2019t be treated fairly; if I don\u2019t get even now, I\u2019ll get even later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teachers\ntold us that by necessity they were spending considerable time trying to\ninstill cooperative learning values and socialization skills at the expense of\nacademics. They said without positive character \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d in place in\nthe classroom, classrooms became an adversarial battleground with the teacher\nplaying more referee than teacher. They stressed, \u201cOnly when students learn\nself-control and cooperative skills, can their academic skills soar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOCIALIZATION A\nBUILDING BLOCK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n McCutcheon\nteachers try to instill \u201cbuilding block\u201d socialization values that are not yet\nin place. The schools can’t be solely responsible for child socialization.\nCommunity organizations such as our Center can help the schools bridge this\ngap. I believe our curriculum significantly helped McCutcheon teachers instill\n\u201cbuilding block\u201d values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although our\nCenter has not had the time or resources to conduct scientific research on the\neffectiveness of the program, McCutcheon and Goudy teachers have been very pleased\nwith our curriculum. Teachers and professional staff who have reviewed the\ncurriculum and observed classroom instruction give it high marks for content,\napproach and results. They also told us that an adult, coming from within the\ncommunity, who is concentrating on character education provides a perspective\nthat they can\u2019t provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JUDGING THE\nIMPACT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps, the students provide the best barometer. They are very enthusiastic when Center teachers enter the classroom or see them on the streets. It\u2019s hard to judge the lasting impact we have on the students, but incidents like the following encourage us. Omar, a third grade student who was in my class last year, stopped me in the main school hallway and asked why I didn\u2019t come to his class any more. After I explained my time constraints, I asked him how he was doing this year, he said, \u201cFine. I get along with everyone. I don\u2019t clown around and get in trouble like I used to. If you\u2019re still doing Miss Jenny\u2019s class (his teacher last year), tell her I\u2019m doing good now.\u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n During the same\nweek, another student from last year after going through the same initial\ndiscussion I had with Omar told me, \u201dI\u2019ll never forget, when opportunity\nknocks.\u201d He was referring to a verse in\na Coop \u201dRap\u201c that I wrote and he learned, \u201dWhen opportunity knocks, we won\u2019t be\nlate, we\u2019ll work together, so we can graduate.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n LOTS OF\nACTIVITIES, GAMES, FUN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our curriculum\nuses games and activities to underscore the lessons. We found that even first\ngrade \u201dstreet smart\u201c students can talk a \u201dgood game\u201c telling us what they think\nwe want to hear instead of their true feelings. \nWhen during a team activity students have to show cooperation skills to\nsucceed, their true feelings about how\nmuch they like to cooperate usually come out. \nFor example, in a team activity where each member has to unscramble a\nword written on the blackboard and write it on a piece of paper before their\nteam can raise hands and try to beat the time of other teams, students learn\nhow to handle teammates who are slower or faster thinkers and writers and less\nskilled spellers. The activity can bring out a lively discussion on cheating,\nwinning and losing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BUILDING BRIDGES\nKEY GOAL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Center\u2019s\nmotto of \u201dbuilding bridges\u201c between ethnic groups is a primary goal of the\ncurriculum. Self-discovery activities, cooperative games and anti-bias\nexercises are used to improve understanding and cooperation between ethnic\ngroups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of\nself-discovery learning involves showing the children shoes from around the world.\nSome foreign shoes and sandals, such as the Japanese wooden Geta sandal with\nits high ridges, can seem weird or stupid when first encountered. After\nlearning to walk in them and discovering the Geta keeps an expensive Kimono\ndress from getting dirty, the Geta design seems pretty sensible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An example of an\nactivity for younger children on stereotyping is to show them a fancy wrapped\nbox and a crumpled sack and ask them to decide which has a surprise in it. The\nsack contains the surprise demonstrating that you can\u2019t always tell what is in\nthe inside of a package or a person from outside appearances. The surprise is a\n11 x 14 inch framed picture of ten happy babies in diapers who are of varying\nskin color and races. The point is raised that the babies don\u2019t care what other\nbabies look like and that all of us are alike in our needs. Above the picture\nis the question posed by Rodney King after the L.A. riots, \u201dCan\u2019t we all get\nalong?\u201c At the bottom of the picture is\nthe answer many of us strive for, \u201dYes we can!\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n View Building Bridges Newsletter Archive Summary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At first glance SEAC’s model multicultural curriculum targetting children in the multiethnic Uptown-Edgewater’s McCutcheon and Goudy Schools, seems not to be all that out of the ordinary. Curriculum focuses on developing self-esteem, positive social interaction skills and cooperation skills with a goal of ultimately more peaceful, productive classrooms and society. Students examine prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, victimization, conflict resolution, peer pressure, goal setting, problem solving, parenting, values, teamwork, communication and life skills all geared, of course, to age level. Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[79,69,64,67,68,81,65,78],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-building-bridges-newsletter-archive","tag-building-bridges","tag-cross-cultural","tag-education","tag-learning","tag-multicultural","tag-peter-porr","tag-philosophy","tag-teaching"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/se-asiacenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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