What Do You Think?

"Schools, more than any other institution in our society, assimilate persons from different ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds and pass on the values and customs of the majority.(Parkay et al., 1996, p.109)" quote comes from Chapter 1, pg.22 of our Foundational Methods textbook along with two interesting questions:

1. Should majority values and customs be honoured in schools?
2. Should each student be expected to assimilate the values customs of majority?

I am really interested to hear your opinions as my stance on this issue might be tainted. Just a mention of the word assimilation stirs up something in me. I must admit that in my case, the word has a rather negative connotation. To rephrase it I am quite allergic to it and sometimes, I wish it didn't exist in our vocabulary:) However, I recognize its positive side and how the process of assimilation could be beneficial to an individual in learning new ways of being and coexisting with others in a new country.

When I hear the word assimilation, the past becomes alive and I can't help but to see the following:

I've just come to Canada. Everything was new -a new city, new people, a new language...and a completely new educational system. I decided to take Canadian history as one of my subject and my first test was coming up. Mr.G preferred lecturing, while we students were expected to take notes. At the beginning of the year we were given a textbook, however Mr.G never made any reference to it. The test was coming up, and I wanted to prepare myself really well, especially because this was my very first test to be written in English. In my previous educational system, students were expected to study both from the text & notes. I went to Mr.G and I wanted to know if I needed to study from the text since he never made any mention of it. If memory serves me well this is how our dialogue went on:

"Mr. G do I need to study from the text as well or just from your notes?"
"Ana this is not Yugoslavia , here you don't need to memorize everything word by word."
"O.K. Mr.G" - I left the classroom with feelings of shame, hurt and disappointment....(I was always proud of my education prior to coming to Canada). However, I quickly learned that and not only from that experience alone, I will need to "assimilate" as quickly as possible. Did I have to compromise on my existing identity? Did I have to change my ways of being to fit the majority? Did I have to assimilate? The answers are most likely YES, as a kid I did not want to experience any further marginalization due to my "differences".

Now, I realize that I cannot change the past, but as a teacher I really need to look at these issues closely, as I would want my students to be proud of who they are and from where they come from.

I am looking forward to hearing your opinions. Thanks!

Ana K.
(aka MayaTheBee)