discimination

First, I am tired of reading stereotypes about cultures and what the statistics show because they lead to more stereotypes. If we are going into the teaching world thinking that we know about this group because of the statistics we will make our own judgments that could turn into discrimination. I want so badly for the day to come when we stop looking at how different people are and start looking at how much alike we are.

Secondly, I strongly believe you will get out of your education what you want from it. It is not because you are this or that or male or female that you will do good in school or not. Every stereotype that was listed in this chapter I knew a personal account that contradicted it. I came from a high school that you could walk down the halls and hear four different language being talked between the students. I think I was most surprised at the fact that because our school was so diverse, we had very little discrimination between the groups. In fact, there was little grouping within your culture to begin with. I loved it. The fights and poor misbehavior issues came from the white students, or at least what I remember.

Thirdly, to answer the question given to us by our teacher,Yes I have discriminated against people, whether it be prejudging them or not even giving them a chance. As a culture, we do this all the time. It is like looking for context clues when you read a book. How do we read people? Is there any such thing as GOOD stereotypes? And Yes I have been discriminated against and you learn to pick your battles. I am not going to let someone tell me I cannot do something because they feel like I am incapable of doing it. Once again, I get most frustrated when people focus merely on our differences.

After that thought, it brings me to my last thought about this chapter. How do I demonstrate respect for cultural heritage as a teacher? What does that even mean. I respect people and by doing that would and should respect their culture. Does respecting another culture mean I become more familiar with it? Should I teach about in my class? Why can't we teach about people in the large retrospect versus this culture and that cultures. Guess what...the whole idea of "culture" sound to me like a bunch more stereotypes coming into our schools.