Outstanding Work

As part of the homework requirement for Multicultural Issues, students respond and reflect on a variety of assignments from their textbooks, Gollnick and Chinn's Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society and Kroeger and Bauer's Exploring Diversity, including scenarios, news reports, and questions posed on class situations and personal experiences.

The response below is an outstanding example of student work on this assignment.

February 24, 2008

Critical Incidents in Teaching

Question #1: The coach is obligated to allow Massey to try out because Section 504 of Public Law 93-112 states: "No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States... Shall, solely by reason of his or her handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." The coach will have to allow Massey to try out in order to determine if he is capable of learning the rules.

Question #2: By discouraging Massey to try out, the coach would be denying him the benefits of football based solely on Massey's disability. Therefore, the coach should not discourage his participation. It would be illegal to do so. However, if Massey shows a lack of ability to understand the rules of the game during try outs and every possible attempt has been made to teach him the rules and skills needed to play the game, he should not be allowed to participate. To allow him to continue after displaying an inability to learn the rules could place Massey in danger. In that situation, the coach could offer Massey the role of manager so that he could participate without placing him in harm's way.

Question #3: The coach should treat Massey differently only in that he should attempt to find a method of communication that would help Massey understand the concepts and rules of football. Coaches are not usually known for their patience, but in this situation, it would not be appropriate for the coach to make sure that Massey understood a line of communication that may be foreign to him.

Question #4: Again, the coach may need to spend a little more time explaining what is going on. However, these accommodations are no different than the adjustments that classroom teachers make for their students. If Massey is able to learn the skills necessary to participate, even if it takes some extra time and attention from the coaching staff, then he should be encouraged to play. The coach is required to be as accommodating as any other educator. Through the process the coach may learn techniques that work with his other players as well.

Question #5: If Massey is good enough to play, the coach should firstly, model appropriate behavior and attitude towards Massey. Secondly, the coach should monitor the interactions of Massey and the other players to ensure equitable treatment. Thirdly, the coach has to be willing to uphold stiff consequences for those players that engage in inappropriate behavior towards any player. The other players should be willing to support the development of the team as a whole, but this behavior has to be promoted and modeled by the coach.

January 26, 2008

Everyone Is a Part of Me.

I sat and thought long and hard about who I am and how it relates to culture and ethnicity. The fact of the matter is that I relate to all I have touched and come in contact with. I have traveled Europe and much of the United States. The picture I have submitted obviously contains my favorite creature on earth, my dog Bash, and myself.

When I think of who I am, I see pieces of my family and dear friends, of all skin tones and nationalities. I sat for an hour looking through numerous photo albums. I tried to find pictures that represent who I am. There were pictures of me with black females, German family members, pictures of my immediate family, pictures of me with those who were in the last days of their lives, with men and women dying from AIDS-related illnesses, and with women dying from breast cancer.

So what do I feel this picture represents and how does it relate to multicultural concepts? There is no way to represent all that I am with a single icon. My grandmother told me once that I should never tell someone that I was Christian. She said that I should live my life so that everyone would assume I was.

Taking that in mind, here I am. My hope is that people will look into my eyes and see me as a fellow human who values them and loves them for who they are regardless of their flaws and especially regardless of their culture. I am white, brown, black, male, female, young and old because everyone I have met is part of who I am.

After all I have experienced, both good and bad, the one dominant element in my life is nature. When I am in the woods I notice everything and acknowledge that it takes every leaf, every tree, every grain of sand to make this world we live and thrive in.

I hope that the background represents my acknowledgement that I am part of nature and the universe. I realize that I am such a small part of this earth; however, I hope that the being you know as Anthony Halter can be part of the positive, nurturing aspect of our world. Bash has taught me that the smallest creatures among us need love and nurture.