EDUCATING MINORITY CHILDREN

Simplistically speaking, there are two official approaches to educating minority children in American public schools: accommodation or assimilation. However, there are those (Trueba & Bartolome, 1997) who would argue that there is a third approach: simply ignoring them. Webster's defines accommodation as "to fit, adapt, or make suitable", "to supply with conveniences". Assimilation is defined as "to make like or alike", "to take up and make part of itself or one self."

The professional literature published in this decade does not specifically employ these two terms, with the one exception of the word accommodation in reference to providing and adapting services to enable the disabled (of all varieties) to obtain a public school education ("Accommodations", 1999, pp. 1-2). Otherwise, the reader is left to discern the writer's bias, and clearly, accommodation is the frontrunner.

Previous generations of immigrants were assimilated into American culture and "everyone" thought that was a good thing. Today the word smacks of racism, ethnic whitewashing, and cultural obliteration. The literature is clear that minority children must be allowed, and encouraged, to maintain their languages, cultures, and traditions within the classroom an

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rueba & Bartolome, 1997, p. 3). Believe that every student is a winner and communicate high expectations for success (Cazden, 1992, p. 14; Garcia, 1991, p. 4; Gomez, 1991, p. 3; Kindler, 1995, p. 7; Milk, Mercado, & Sapiens, 1992, p. 4; Trueba & Bartolome, 1997, p. 3). Be a positive role model of a minority group (Lankard, 1994, p. 1). Have a working knowledge of the social and behavioral characteristics of at least two minority populations (Faltis & Merino, as quoted in Milk, Mercado, & Sapiens, 1992). Colleges and universities are coming under attack by the experts to modernize teaching techniques and recruit more minority students (among others, Lankard, 1994, pp. 1-4). The experts assert that teachers and future teachers need professional development programs and degree programs that "model an ideal classroom environment," help them develop "strategies for fostering team-based approaches to resolving instructional challenges," and engage them to engage in "an active, introspective process through which they are, in some manner, transformedà better able to sustain the willingness and ability to effect change in their classrooms" (Milk, Mercado, & Sapiens, 1992, p. 9). Additionally, "mentoring, role modeling, peer gui
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Approximate Word count = 2197
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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