Multicultural Education and Art

Before entering this class I really did not know a lot about multiculturalism, particularly about what strategies to use in the classroom that could promote the acceptance of different cultures. I had learned some about it in my first art education course last semester, but no more than knowing how art disciplines can support a multicultural education. Otherwise I thought that it was aimed towards teaching students about the cultural practices of a wide variety of people by studying “past” cultures or ethnicities of people; their religions, languages, values, clothing and so on. My definition was not wrong, but it is limiting and excludes a wide range other groups or “types” of people that should be studied within a “multicultural” education. In an article by James A. Banks, titled Multicultural Education: Goals, Possibilities and Challenges, he described multicultural education as a “meta-discipline,” and that the agreement “among specialists centers around a primary goal for multicultural education, which is to increase educational equality for both gender groups, for students from diverse ethnic, cultural, and language groups, and for exceptional students” (Diaz, 2001, 12). I had not considered these other characteristics of types of people as being part multiculturalism, but in fact they are. In order to fulfill the main goal of multicultural education and equality for ALL students, our school systems need to be totally “reconstructed” and the gaps between rich schools and “low-income schools” needs to be filled (Diaz, 2001, 12). Upon reading this article, I decided to refer back to one of my textbooks from my Introduction to Art Education class last semester. There are many similarities between the article by Banks and one of the introductory chapters of my art education book by Stephan Mark Dobbs, titled Learning In and Through Art; A guide to Discipline-Based Art Education. I have scanned in a couple quotes from this book by Dobbs that discuss the idea of multicultural curriculums and how one can incorporate them into art education, which I definitely plan to do once I have my own art classroom one day.

The Story of My Body...

The Story of my Body was a very touching article for me, not because I necessarily know how she, the author Judith Ortitz Cofer felt, but because I too was always very self conscience about my looks throughout my childhood. I have also always felt awful for others who were ridiculed because of their appearance. I now know that I had no reason to be self conscience and have changed my attitude about the importance of looks in the overall big picture of life. But still, I felt a certain connection to Judith’s story because as I was growing up starting during middle school, I always seemed concerned with how I looked at school particularly, frequently “fixing” myself in between classes. I had no reason to feel insecure, in that unlike the girl in this story, my mother and father always told me how beautiful I was and to be myself regardless of what others thought. My mother also did not criticize me when I started experimenting with make-up around 12 years old and never once told me to wash it off or change how I looked. Looking at the pictures now, I apparently thought that eyeliner was used to draw thick black outlines around my eyes and concealer was meant to totally conceal my actual skin. However, as ridiculous as I looked or whatever strange clothes I chose to wear, my parents let me express myself as I pleased…probably excusing it as some sort of phase I would get over (which I did thank goodness!-).



I think that perhaps being a single child could have had something to do with my self-consciousness, because once I started going to school, I wanted nothing more than to have kids to play with and to be liked by everyone. Somehow I had equated having friends with being “pretty” because I thought that all the popular girls were typically “pretty.” I was not an ugly child by any means but I did have very fair skin, lots of freckles and sort-of reddish tinted hair, which I thought of as not the ideal definition of beauty. I had plenty of friends also, regardless of what I did or didn’t look like so I am still not sure where my insecurities stemmed from and why I felt the need to dress up every day. Maybe it was because I noticed that the kids with zits or weight problems were the ones who got picked on in much the same way as Judith did in this story. I did not want to be the outcast or “that girl” that had no one to play with on the playground. Though I felt sorry for these students, I would continue to hang out with the kids that usually made fun of them even though I knew it was wrong. I would try to stay out of it and laugh it off because I did not “really” want to hurt their feelings and only wanted to be accepted too.


Once I went to high school, I continued to try to hold this image and strived to be “pretty,” probably for no other reason than to fit in. I went to a high school where none of my friends from middle school went, so I was considered a “new kid” among the students there. Still, I had met a couple of the “pretty” girls in my science class and thought that I was “in there” with this group, so I had begun sitting with them every day at lunch. I remember one day during the first few weeks of high school, I went to go sit with “the group,” which I thought I had been accepted into. They were those kids whom were considered “the cool kids” and they always sat at the “cool peoples’ table”. This particular day was different though. I walked up to the table and for some reason, everyone started laughing and looking at me like all the sudden I should not be sitting there. I felt uncomfortable because I did not know why they were all looking at me so strangely, considering as I said before, I thought I was “in there” for sure. Come to find out later that day, one of the” really cute” boys, which I actually did know from middle school was making fun, of how white and “pasty” I was according to him. I had never been so embarrassed in my life and did not understand why a white boy would be making fun of a white girl for being white?? I thought how ironic? How could that be? I was devastated at the time and immediately began shopping for fake tanners and applying them daily, even though the streaky orange color looked horrible and was very noticeable.


It is funny now looking back on it, but it definetely had some impact on me because I still remember it so clearly. I continued to be friends with these girls after that and now they are some of my very best friends. Even the “cute” boy, whom I have reminded of this incident several times since, I am also still friends with today. But the fact that this little incident has stuck with me to this day has helped me realize how others must feel who get made fun of on a daily basis. How I felt that day cannot even compare to how these kids might feel who really have skin or weight problems. It is no surprise that so many of them remain negative towards others and have low confidence levels for the rest of their lives, considering the treatment they have gone through. And even worse many of them hurt themselves or even commit suicide because of bullying like this. After reading Judith’s story and reminiscing about my childhood insecurities, I have also come to realize the importance of teaching our students to be kind to one another and that looks are NOT everything. As teachers we need to recognize issues like this that go on among our students and nip the problem in the bud during their early years of schooling!