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Cultural Differences

Multicultural education – teaching tolerance starts inside classrooms
Juan Gonzalez was a bright five-year old boy when he migrated with his family from Puerto Rico to the United States. At a time when he was ready to learn to read and write in his native tongue, Juan was suddenly enrolled in an English-only classroom. The only tool that boy possessed for oral communication (the Spanish language) was completely useless in this situation. Juan and his teacher could not communicate with each other because each spoke a different language and neither spoke the language of the other. Juan felt stupid. On the other hand, his teacher perceived him to be culturally disadvantaged and beyond help. However, the teacher and the school officials allowed Juan to “sit there” because the law required that children should be at school.
For the following two years, Juan attended classes he did not understand. Juan prayed for the teacher not to call on him. The teacher rarely collected Juan’s papers since he believed the boy was not capable of what the “more fortunate” children could do. Juan’s self-concept began to deteriorate. Another Puerto Rican boy in the classroom helped Juan in the process of adjustment. They could not speak Spanish during school time for two reasons. First, the teacher believed it would confuse Juan to speak both languages. In addition, when they spoke Spanish it annoyed people around who could not understand it. As a result, the other boy could not translate school subjects. Juan was expected to learn the language prior to the other disciplines.
By the time Juan started to understand English, he was so far behind in his schoolwork that it was impossible for him to catch up with other classmates. His teachers labeled him handicapped. Classmates frequently teased Juan. In fact, each time he attempted to speak English, other kids ridiculed him for his imperfect use of the language. The teacher believed the teasing was a good thing because it could force...