I am going to be completely honest when I signed up for this course I was just trying to fulfill a core requirement in order to graduate from Towson University. But from the first day | walked into the class and read the course objective I found that wasn’t going to be your typical class where you just node your head and wait for the time to pass as the professor lectures you on the class lesson. This course forces you to step out of comfort zone and deal with real world that either most people are too afraid to talk about or are not simply aware of them.
This course examines multicultural influences on education. Students will engage in the process of self-awareness and awareness of others. In addition students will explore approaches to advocacy and social action; with special attention to educational context. A few of the course objective is listed below:
• Demonstrate an understanding of diversity as it relates to socioeconomic status, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, age, ability, sexual orientation, familial structure, religion/spirituality, national origin, learning style, and appearance. Identify the characteristics of bias as a universal reality and the impact of bias on people’s lives.
• Develop strategies to advocate for social change, with emphasis on educational contexts. In this paper I will explain how the various assignment Who am 1, Black Panther: Vanguard Revolution and Black like Me, help me achieve the course objective so far. The first Who Am I? This assignment intended for students had to investigate your cultural and geographic origins.
Examine the potential impact that your background can have on your understanding of diverse individuals, Examine the potential impact that your background can have on encounters with diverse individual, Examine how your cultural background has impacted your views of the world, your behavior, and your values. This assignment as an African-American male is where I was exposed to the most diversity as it relates to socioeconomic status, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, age, ability, sexual orientation, familial structure, religion/spirituality, national origin, learning style, and appearance.
During this assignment I got to listen too many different students talk about their heritages some that I heard about before and some that I didn’t even knew existed. But it was during this assignment that I realize it not that some people don’t care about other races it just that for a majority portion of their lives they haven’t been exposed to any other race then the one in their community in which they grew up in the next assignment was a great way for students to be exposed into another era and experience another culture sufferings and pains.
The era of the Black Panther Party. Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: For this assignment we had to watch the PBS program Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution and then write a 3-page essay discussing the mood in the country then and what the Black Panthers believed could make them participants in the culture of the US. But we had to compare the Black Panthers with more recent times the Black Lives Matter movement. After watching the PBS program I realized in comparison between the Black Panther to the Black Lives Matter Movement is that this generation lacks passion.
During the civil right movements the era of the Black Panthers they weren’t afraid the voice their opinion event though it may cost them their lives now to fair it was harsher time back then. But they realize that the only way to change the outcome of their projected future was to enrich their community in any way they can because the children our future. If look at this generation (I acknowledge that I apart of the problem) all we care about is materialistic things. Keep in mind that the majority of the kids in the Black Panther Party were between the age of the 17- 22.
If that generation can leave a mark a print on American history why this generation. The last assignment that guided me towards the course objective for the first half of this semester what the Black Like Me Essay. Black Like Me Essay This assignment was designed for the students to Read “Black Like Me”, a book about how a Caucasian male (John Howard Griffin) change his skin color to brown in order to see how the other race lives, and write a 3- 4-page essay that discusses the journey of John Griffin in 4 major states in the south; New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, and Atlanta.
This assignment didn’t shed too much light for simply because I read and dissected this book in high school. But if I was writing from the perceptive of someone who read this book for the first time, I would talk about the stereotype that the African-American community receives in the past but how it carried over to this era as well. How people see African – American male and automatically think that they are loud, rude and probably a gang banger or they’re just up to no good.
Conclusion In conclusion Education 203, this semester, so has change my view on people for the better. So far in class I understand the history of the African-American community through the Black Like Me and Black Panther assignment. Most of all I now understand that just because someone doesn’t understand a race it not because they necessarily dislike that race but it could just mean that they haven’t came in contact with them too many times.
