As the world becomes more interconnected through technology, ease of communication, and assimilation, society is bound to become more integrated with people from all around the world. Diverse culture are a huge element of innovation and advancement in society which means that they should be encouraged and not looked down upon. The education system has had, and continues to have some issues with the idea of multiculturalism because of how “it has always been”. Whether that is teachers struggling with foreign language speakers, the materials covered in class, or the fundamental writing process, the education system needs to adapt to allow for inclusion of all students.
In Professing Multiculturalism: The Politics of Style in the Contact Zone by Min-Zhan Lu, she shows not only the difficulties of teaching a diverse classroom but also how it can be turned into an advantage for all students. The issue that arises in the class that is being discussed is with how a foreign language speaker who is still learning English writes and the challenges that she faces, “Here is a "foreign" speaker, a student from Malaysia, trying to use the English idiom "to be able to" and ending up with an “error” (Lu 451). While most professors would usually mark this as a grammatical “error” as the students did, she is able to use this as a teaching moment for her class as well as using the occasion as a way to illustrate the concept of “contact zones”. This type of teaching is much needed in all levels of school given how many foreign speakers and people who are just slower learners in general there are. Rather than just a mark through the paper, use the “error” as an opportunity to teach so the student can focus on developing their thoughts and not spending all of their time on small grammatical issues.
Along with teaching methods, as previously touched upon the theory of “Contact Zones” are another area in which it is harder for minorities to thrive. In the previous example of the “can able to” situation and the discussion after, the foreign language speaker is still at a disadvantage. The contact zones are interactions and discussions that happen in many settings and shape the way people think and act moving forward. In this situation, the foreign language speaker is being discussing her issues with other students who are more familiar with the language and they are debating over the proper dictionary way of doing things. This turns into a student vs. dictionary vs. foreign language speaker debate where the non-foreign language speakers clearly have the most power. It is not only a gang mentality where all of the students will agree with each other but it also brings in the dictionary definition to aid their arguments. These sort of discussions might lead to the minority having very little power over the situation and viewpoints not totally being able to be expressed. While these discussions are good to have and are much better than ignoring the situation as a whole there are obvious drawbacks to them. In a classroom environment like this, the discussion can easily get off topic and not have the students learn anything from the situation as well as there needs to be open minds in the class who are willing to participate for the discussion to even happen. So while in theory these types of class settings are much better teaching methods, they are also much harder to control.
Another issue with the education system in regards to multiculturalism is the materials covered in class. It is hard for students to be exposed to these ideas of multiculturalism when all of the material they are given to analyze is from the canon which generally includes older white males with typical writing styles. Even though I have been exposed to more works by authors of all races, religions, and creeds now that I am in college, this may just be the norm in the progressive school that I am at now. As we discussed in class, many students are still trapped in the canon throughout high school and even sometimes in college. Exposing students to new material outside the canon is another amazing way to broaden students horizons and develop openness to new cultures other than their own.
The way writing is taught can also be a challenge to multiculturalism as well. Lu argues the importance of the order of how writing is taught, “[teachers] may reinforce students' sense of the discrepancy between their inability to produce "error-free" prose and their ability to come up with "good ideas," and they may confirm these students' impression that only those who make "errors" need to worry about issues of usage and editing,” (Lu 443). She stresses that writing should not be taught in the linear way of grammar first then composing thoughts then learning style. It is very easy to see why this could work for students who are less advanced or any student in general. Style of writing and composing thoughts is extremely important and distinguishes good and great writers from others but they are also the hardest to develop while grammar skills would come along the way. Also many acclaimed writers also have styles that do not follow perfect grammar techniques. For example Hemmingway is known for his very choppy style that has lots of short sentences that are very to the point. Although it is important for someone to have enough knowledge of grammar to get their point across, I fully agree that the order in which things are taught after a certain age should be in question.
This brings into question how the writing process should be taught while thinking about multiculturalism. Donald Murray in Teach Writing as a Process not a Product argues that most of writing should focus on prewriting. He brings up that 85% of a writers time should be spent prewriting and on the surface that seems like an incredibly high number but if he is talking about all of someone’s experiences and class learnings it might not be enough. This is why how students are taught and what materials they are given to learn from are so important because it both shapes who they are as a writer and how they view the world. Multiculturalism is for sure becoming more popular but there is plenty of work to do to insure a diverse and thoughtful environment for not just young writers but people in general.