Blog Post #4 - Week 3 - Noa Simon

Noa Simon - Week 3

July 23, 2015

Q: Given your understanding of intentional and unintentional racism through both teacher-student interactions and curriculum development, how would you encourage diversity in the classroom?

Because the term “diversity” can refer to multiple aspects of a school community, diversity can be encouraged in a variety of ways. Diversity is defined as, “ the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.” Thus, there are different ways of measuring diversity within a classroom. One step that needs to be taken in order to address the many aspects of diversity is to transform the school environment to one of trust and motivation. Building trust encourages all students to share their perspectives and interests allowing for more multi-viewed conversations. This further encourages students to embrace differences in their culture, heritage, and family background. Teachers also need to emphasize that they believe in their students, through setting high expectations while also serving as a source of support. This can prevent students from dropping out as they will better be able to see the purpose of education, further working to increase diversity within the classroom. Promoting a flexible curriculum allows for students with different needs to remain present in the classroom. To allow for a more individualized system of learning to take place, class sizes need to be smaller. This allows teachers to give more attention to their students, and prevents children from feeling that they don’t matter. This allows for more voices to be heard within the classroom and for students to see challenges in a more positive light as their confidence is built up.

Additionally, racial diversity is lacking in the US public school system in part due to zoning laws and the rigid tracking system that defines one’s educational opportunities.  In some cases people of the same race or cultural background may live in the same area, which then leads to a greater percentage of one race in a school. I understand the necessity of some zoning laws, but I think this is confining. While this is a complex issue, finding ways to allow some students to attend school in different neighborhoods would be helpful. Drastically improving on the current system of entrance exams used by some schools, could be a valuable method of allowing students to attend schools that they aren’t zoned for. The system of tracking in public schools prevents students from reaching their full potential through diminishing their confidence. Students that are able to receive tutoring and come from stable homes may be more likely to excel in gifted and talented programs. This effects the racial diversity and socioeconomic status of the students in these programs. Students who are put in the “regular” track may begin to believe that they are lesser than the other students and can’t improve despite their hardest efforts. I think that giving students who aren’t in an honors program more challenging classwork if they meet the standards of a class would prevent students from being defined by the track they are put in when they are in kindergarten. This would afford students more opportunities to move up based on their academic performance, in turn increasing diversity in the classroom.