Crossing Cultures: Class, Race & Culture

"A Talk to Teachers" by: James Baldwin

 "Creating Culturally Relevant Education " Youth in Action (video)

 I found this article extremely interesting and at the same time taken back by what the author had to say. I was taken back because what he said about a black man in a white society was true, sad but true. Oppression is real and people of color deal with it everyday. The article and video really focus on how culture plays a big part in a persons life. While the article focus on how society is menaced... "A whole country of people believe I am a nigger and I don't." it offers multiple examples how African Americans are born into a society that leaves little room to grow. the video focused on how students and parents approach to help create a culturally relevant education. Many of the students and parents felt like teachers didn't take the time and day to get to know them. As if they were just another face, another number, statistic in the crowd. I think many people experience this everywhere. I know being in college when I have a lecture of 200 people I feel like I don't matter. Its a horrible feeling and not how education should be taught. One should not go through school feeling as though they don't matter to the people trying to teach them. I think both the article and videos point to get across was that teachers need to take the time to connect with their students. Get to know them, where they come from, who they really are, and maybe just maybe the end results will be different.


This article made me think of something I did in the first grade. My teacher had every student color a picture of a person who was from a different country. When everyone was done we hung them all around the classroom. The point was to get across that everyone is different, we all came from somewhere and its not the same as our neighbor. I think Diversity should be brought to children's attention and should be taught and here's a link to teaching it.

http://www.uww.edu/learn/diversity/dozensuggestions.php

Aside from this weeks assignment, something the author said that really stuck out to me was..

"The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity".

To me this statement is the ultimate truth and It could not have been better said. This explains life itself and the purpose of not only education but how one will find who they are. But in order to find out who you are in life I think it stems from education what you learn, how you learn, and what you take from all the experiences you endure.