In today’s society there remain marked debates of ethnicity, race, and religion. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that blacks were kept separate from the rest of society, when immigrants were treated with suspicion and women with derision. Many still are. The classroom being a natural mirror for society, it stands to reason that the same debates rage throughout our school systems. Despite the enlightened strivings toward equality that have been pursued in the last decades, there remain many groups and individuals who maintain that diversity is an inconvenient or even dangerous idea. Rarely does anyone argue the case for diversity in the classroom; people are very rarely seen on the local news station espousing the merits of diverse integration. Yet the concept of diversity is integral to the continued effectiveness of the American school system.
Many of the advantages which can be found in an atmosphere of diversity should be self
Diverse classrooms also serve an important role in changing the way the country as a whole feels about those who are different from themselves. It is almost impossible to believe in this century, but bigotry and racism still run rampant in any American living rooms. Children are socialized in their first, formative years by their family members and go to school sharing many of the family’s values. Oftentimes these values are bigoted, either implicitly or overtly. Though it is very difficult for schools to overcome the lessons parents give their children, they can provide exposure to other cultures in a controlled setting. This allows children to see other ways of thinking and hopefully challenging them to examine their own beliefs. It is quite likely that the civil rights movement would have proven entirely unsuccessful without the support of diversity in the school system.
Many people today take diversity for granted, completely for
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