A Community in Need of Multicultural Change

Letter to the Community

To all citizens of the Newburgh Enlarged City School District,

Without knowing it sometimes, we are teaching with the assumption that all students come from the same background. However, in today's world we have many diverse backgrounds that we must take into consideration. Most of our students come from a lower class family- not middle class as some people may think. Therefore, we should alter the curriculum in our schools to enhance the education of these very diverse students in our classrooms.
One of the main things we can change is the delivery of lessons to our students. Teachers cannot assume that all students will learn from direct instruction and lecture. Rather, they should incorporate many different teaching methods to meet the different learning styles of the children. They can practice cooperative learning, inquiry lesson, and more visual and hands-on lessons.
As for the content of our curriculum, we should refrain from teaching specific units and topics on under-represented groups (such as African-American Scientists or Poetry by Women). Instead, we should try to weave the teaching of these topics together with that of over-represented groups.
Assessment is also a very important part of the curriculum. We should try to assess our student's understanding in ways that vary more from traditional pen and paper tests. We should gather information through projects and other activities in which we can see students displaying their understanding in an authentic manner.
There are many more ways in which we can alter our curriculum to meet the needs of our multicultural students, and these are just a few. Please join me on this quest to change our schools for the better. I estimate that the change will take at least one full school year to integrate into our curriculum, and it will take much hard work and training of faculty and staff- since most of our schools have been teaching this “traditional” curriculum for so long. However, the amount of work we put into this change will not even compare to the benefits that will be seen by it. Our students will prosper and grow both socially and intellectually. We need to meet the standards of today's diverse society and show our children that everybody is important and unique.

Sincerely,
Mickie Lincoln