What is diversity? And what does being diverse mean in a classroom? Diversity is a term to corresponds with race, and culture. To be diverse means that that people or students are able to relate to many different cultures, learning all kinds of different things. To be culturally aware in a classroom is very important for kids especially when they are in an elementary school setting. Learning about different types of cultures helps students to understand their own culture, and what else is going on in the world. 

Chapter three in McNerghney’s book talks about eh importance of multicultural education in creating a classroom that discusses different types of culture. Culture, as defined in the book, “refers to all of the learned characteristics of a people”, which includes language, religion, social mores, artistic expression, beliefs, and values. When students are able to understand what makes up a culture, they are more likely to more more globally diverse, and even understand their own culture more than before.

Today, students in elementary schools are experiencing people for all different races and ethnicities coming to their classroom and moving into their neighborhoods. Often times, kids expect these new people to change their ways and adapt to the new society they are living in, but most times, these kids keep aspects from their old cultures, which then makes them different. By teaching the importance of different cultures and understanding the importance of different races, kids are more likely to not view these new kids as different, but accept that they have different values, and want to learn more about this new culture. This reading, multicultural education, race and education values are discussed. This reading from the module really stuck out to me about the importance of culture, but also about how by not understanding new cultures, racism is often developed. 

Teaching multicultural education also has many other benefits for education. One line in the book stood out to me about the importance of multicultural education. Page 52 outlines 5 approaches for multicultural education, and the first is “Teaching the culturally different tries to assimilate people into the cultural mainstream using transitional bridges in the regular school program”. Incorporating cultural aspects will help students in the long run be able to understand new cultures. 

By letting students explore cultures, students are more likely to share ideas, allowing students to learn from each other and grow into different learners.