Response #7

I believe the sheer diversity in public schools is one of their greatest strengths, as students, teachers, and families can be exposed to new ideas and experience new cultures to help them live in this global world.  This chapter, titled "Culturally Responsive Teaching", enumerates the importance of diversity, and includes strategies for engaging minority students in the classroom, particularly how to select texts relevant to the cultural groups in the classroom.  However, I believe that these texts must be, first and foremost, valuable sources for the subject matter.  We have all had experiences in school where the class was assigned such-and-such a book, or watched such-and-such a movie, simply because that day, week, or month had been designated for the cultural group in question, without being relevant to the class topic.  I feel that this blatant lip service is more harmful than omission, although obviously in many cases the source is important and relevant to the subject.