As global population rises so as the diversity of different races progresses. In 1990 U.S. census, it was shown that one in every four citizens living in America was a person of color.
This showed that the racial composition of every classroom is changing with more students coming from different cultural backgrounds. Because of the significant changes, it is expected by 2020 the classroom setting will be filled by students of different cultural heritage.
Although this is one way of being immersed in the worldwide identities of people, there lies a question of the readiness in breaking the barriers of racism and discrimination among students who have different backgrounds.
The impact of demographic trends in the 21st century tend to deal with the ability to accommodate marginalized students of different races in the acquisition of better knowledge, sophisticated skills and varying attitudes so that they can be part of the global workforce and society.
To do this, education must be restructured and examined to set goals of helping the low-income racial families to go to school. Through this, they can participate in civic action activities with the other people of different significant cultures. Strengthening social groups are essential for survival and the exchange of ideas.
When people communicate effectively even if they have varying ethnicity or racial origin, they are able to work together toward a certain goal and avoid conflicting issues that may be harmful to survival.
There is a great need for multicultural education to be introduced in the school curriculum to guide the students in studying other cultures and free them from boundaries of indifference and help them to promote civic community by participating in activities that lead for the common good globally.
Education serves as the path of understanding the different races and creates a society that respects cultural diversity and a framework of sharing democratic values relating to gender issues, ethnic variations and cultural diversity.
Primarily, American students need to acquire necessary skills, basic programs, values and knowledge on multiculturalism so that they can adopt in any cross-cultural, cross-racial and cross-ethnic events and situations. At the same time, they will be able to join freely in global public discussion and civic welfare action programs.
The reality of ethnic pluralism or the growing number of people with different races interacting globally creates an awareness that multicultural education should be at the onset to teach the young generation to deal with cultural differences by respecting their neighbors at the other side of the globe and identifying the uniqueness of their being.
Acquisition of knowledge, skills and having broader perspective of societal sensitivities about women, children and ethnical variation will generally help the people to understand the differences culturally and avoid conflicts and arguments.
In particular, many Americans and other structured nations will have the chance to widen their horizons toward multicultural literacy in interconnecting with other countries that have different values, beliefs, traditions and sensitivities.
Upon understanding the rationale of ethnic pluralism and the necessity of multicultural education, all nations will be more aware of their actions and work hand in hand with other cultures in making the world a better place to live in.
Maynard Joseph Delfin finished AB Journalism (cum laude) at the University of Santo Tomas. He has worked as book editor, deskman, copy editor and research and publications officer in leading publishing and research companies. For comments about his articles, you can email him at [email protected]
