cultural diversity

            Immigrant Students and Literacy: Reading, Writing and Remembering by, Gerald Campano, begins with the compelling story of Gerald’s grandfather, Faustino. Faustino came to America in search of a better life but soon found out that foreigners were seen as inferior. As a sailor in the U.S Navy he “always found people” and a community, he never gave up on his journey in becoming an individual and eventually achieved “solidarity with his fellow sailors” ( pg. xiii). With this story Gerald Campano mentions how it can be a challenge to view the lives of immigrants, and to fully understand their journey in the United States. As educators we need to surpass are own personal boundaries to expand are ability to teach those students who are culturally diverse.

            Campano writes this book to “invite teachers to imagine their own classrooms as collaborative sites of inquiry that may inform their practice and have general relevance to the larger educational community” (pg 5) After reading this book one can see the power of inquiry in a classroom and the power a story holds, as this is how Campano explores what it means to teach in a diverse community. In chapter six a section reads “This was a day that had swollen my heart” (pg 80). This section displays not only how boundaries are broken in classroom but how reestablishing boundaries can allow a classroom to explode with success and excitement. Campano allowed his students to have a voice which allowed the hopes and dreams of the community to flood the classroom. The students adapted the school curriculum to reflect their own worldly views. As a teacher Campano also adjusted the curriculum to better fit his students and their needs. He was also concerned with how a school can transform itself by looking at the knowledge and experiences of the students who walk within the walls of that school. Making students out to be individuals and allowing them to reach out and share their stories allows for empathy for one another.  All of the students wrote stories that centered on their families or friends in other towns. Campano and the class made a global bulletin board that displayed the student work allowing the students to even hang pictures of their friends and family. This created a community and allowed the students to even ask each other about their families. The activity transformed family history into collective inquiry.

            I have been in several city schools, and have viewed the cultural diversity within these schools. While I greatly enjoyed my time at the city schools I was able to witness some of the hatred that ran within the school walls. Students from different cultural backgrounds often had difficulty getting along with one another. I feel that as an educator it is my job to make a community within my classroom. It is my job to allow my students the chance to get to know one another. I feel that if these students were given the chance to share life stories that they would see the similarities that exist among them. Thus giving the students the chance to relate and empathize with each other. I also do not believe that this problem only affects our city schools, or more culturally diverse schools. Even while observing in more suburban settings the students often feared those who were different. Socio-economic status along with ethnicity seemed to be a large dividing factor, even among the younger students.  As a teacher we need to break these barriers that exist in our classrooms and schools. We need to allow our curriculum to cater to the differences that thrive in our schools.