issues of diversity and multiculturalism in preschool education: A reader's theatre, The

Multicultural Education, Fall 2001 by Christian, Karen M

Administrator: Of course, only after we put you on a variety of "behavior plans" and medications to try to change who you are. After all, we did all we could do for you and you still couldn't fill in your multiple-choice test correctly.

Community Member: "Self-creation is not just moral and psychological; it is political, and it is an aesthetic act" (Beyer & Pagano).

Parent: Is it possible to have an educational system that encourages and values the scientist and the artist in each of us? We are not only scholars but also dreamers, not just audience members but also orchastraters, not simply spectators but also athletes. We all possess more characteristics than are taught and encouraged in our schools today.

Administrator: The first programs we cut in schools are the arts. We do not place the same value on creating rap music or drawing with silver pens that we do on figuring out the Pythagorean Theorem or learning Newton's laws.

Community Member: But the arts are where most of us truly find our sense of self. "The arts are more than just the surface qualities of which they are partially comprised- they generate meanings and values that cannot be conveyed in the same way or to the same end through more didactic forms of exposition" (Beyer & Pagano).

Parent: No other community is more accepting than that of the art world. It is a place where many "ruled out" children have found their places and become contributing members of society that have made all of our lives richer.

Teacher: "We may say that we never just are what we are, for what we are, that is what we take ourselves to be, is in a constant state of revision" (Beyer & Pagano). It is my hope as a teacher that all of my students will realize their potential in many different disciplines.

Student: "My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-- It gives a lovely light!"

(Edna St. Vincent Millay)

Politician: "Rather than the voice of one authority, meaning is made as a product of dialogue between and among individuals" (Ladson-Billings).

"There comes that mysterious meeting in Life, when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential" (Wollan).

Parent: Diversity is acquired through diverse experiences. "Individuals who have lived through the experience about which they claim to be experts are more believable and credible than those who have merely read and thought about such experience" (Collins, Ladson-Billings). I will help you have diverse experiences and from that you will take what you can carry.

Community Member: Our journey together is not long. "Every end is a 'turning point,' in the ongoing process of organizing activity and hence of meaning-making" (Dewey-Doll).

We must all guide each other and ourselves. "Pre-set plans can be only general guidelines, 'fuzzy' by intent, not particulars to be implemented or followed" (Doll).

We each will play our many roles to help each other grow in understanding.

Teacher: "The children already know how to open up a classroom, for play is the original open-ended and integrated curriculum. It is the pathway to learning in which differences are valued and rewarded because they enhance the creative potential of the imagination. Children do not ask: Where do you come from? They ask: What role will you play? The children have much to teach us, if we but stop and listen" (Paley).