Ed for Eq Chapter 6 Assignment

Chapter 6 reflections

6.3

I chose a 4^th grade science textbook. It’s a McGraw-Hill Science Series. National Geographic (2000)

I am pleased to report that this textbook is very diverse. It is a science book, so the people featured in the text were there as examples for different science projects and such. But each page had a different representative from many different kinds of cultures. There were even people with disabilities in the text. I was happy to see that this textbook was so diverse. It was a nice change. Had this been 1970, this would not have been the case. I did notice though, that most of the scientists featured throughout the text were male. Very few female scientists were mentioned, even though we have had many leading women throughout the history of scientific breakthroughs. Based on my tallies, the winner for the most representation was the White American (mostly male), but was only up one tally. If I were to create a bar graph of representation, they would all be pretty level. I think this is thanks to the National Geographic influence on this particular text. National Geographic is pretty objective and diverse in their influences. Although my findings are not exactly equal in representation, I felt this book was diverse, and useful for healthy scientific learning. Next edition, I might suggest featuring more female scientists.

Totals from my observation

Arab American-13 Latino American- 15 Mixed groups-20

Asian American-21 American Indian-18 Male-68

African American-21 White American-22 Female-62

6.13

http://www.tolerance.org/activities

This website was produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center

It was intended to reduce prejudice, and improve intergroup relations by supporting equitable school experiences. They provide free educational materials to teachers and schools in the US and abroad. Their magazine is sent to 400,000 educators twice a year, and approximately 10,000 educators use their free curricular kits. Every year more than 10,000 schools participate in the annual Mix It Up Lunch Day Program.

This website is categorized to easily search for activities to use in the classroom. For example, you start off picking a grade level, and then pick a subject. From there, you scroll through various lessons that help teachers integrate race, poverty levels, sex, religion, and all sorts of diversity issues that may arise in the classroom.

This organization was founded in Montgomery, AL. It covers a wide range of multicultural topics, so I had a hard time finding any biases. There was a lot of information on the website supplemented by videos that talked about racial diversity in the classroom; I can only assume this website was based primarily on this issue. I also looked up the demographics of Montgomery, Al, and since half the population there is black, I assume there is an emphasis there on racial equality in the schools. That was the only bias I could detect might be a possibility.

This sight tends to view the world from the eyes of the minority. I noticed that since it offers material regarding homosexuals, gender issues, and “environmental racism,” the website must be tapping deeply into issues revolved around minorities often ignored. It is interesting to note that these lessons are designed for K-12^th grade. I explored some of the K-2 activities and I was so surprised by what this organization is integrating into lessons for the early childhood levels. I never even thought of teaching “Music for Justice” to 1^st graders.

This website does wonders for implementing issues that might be tough to include in the curriculum. I found though that they do not contribute helpful information on school violence, mediation, and bullying that occurs so often in school. It is definitely important to educate our children to tolerate all cultures because that is what America is about. However, we must also focus primarily on the safety of our students. And multicultural resources need to implement safety with their lessons in order to promote peace.

Overall, this website is fantastic, and something I have never seen before. Check it out. There is a lot of unique information.