RE: Sleeter and Grant Chapters 5-6

With all these different methods that Sleeter and Grant keep proposing, it's getting difficult at times to keep them separate in my mind. I found certain similarities between the Single Group studies approach covered in Chapter 4, and the Multicultural Education approach in Chapter 5. I think out of the two I like the idea of the Multicultural Education approach more because it seems to integrate all cultures into the classroom more efficiently than the single group studies approach. While I agree that individual groups often need increased attention and emphasis on their culture, I think that it's important that all students benefit from this attention. I like the idea of making all students feel that they contribute to American culture with their unique backgrounds and ethnicities. I think each student should be given an opportunity to explore their culture and celebrate it, but also share it with their peers so that they can see how diverse they truly are, yet how simple it is to use that as an advantage rather than a negative in the classroom. I noted a lot of similarities to Dewey in Chapter 5: Sleeter and Grant are intent that the school life is an extension of the homelife. Students will learn better if their teachers have a solid understanding of where they come from in the community, and how their culture effects their upbringing. They explain that children are definitely molded by their environments, and that it's important for teachers to realize and use this to their advantage.

A lot of the information presented in Chapter six reminds me of what we talked about with the Kozol presentation. However, I wonder if it would be feasible to count on this theory in a classroom. I think the most important thing to be learned from this chapter is that social class plays a huge role in our society, and thus in our school system. We know that it is often minorities that are receiving lesser education and less opportunities in the educational system. If teachers in any area believe that social class does not have significance in the public school system, they are doing themselves and their students a dis-service. I like the idea of Multicultural Social Justice education empowering students to realize this impact and work for social change. I think there are a lot of positive points to this theory that involve helping students realize that they have a responsibility to be informed and to work towards the betterment of their situation.

I think some sort of combination of these two theories would be really great to use in a middle school, high school, or college classroom, because students would already have the basic knowledge to be able to understand more social complexities and they would be better prepared for the responsibility of social change.