Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: De-emphasize Differences. I was recently assigned to the middle school in the Warren School District. The district serves a community that had once been an all-white middle-class enclave, but has recently become more diverse in its ethnic makeup. I am very interested in multicultural education. I instituted the use of dialog journals in my adviser group, telling the students that they can write anything they want. Some journal entries cause me concern. Warren Jackson, an African American, complains that my emphasis on African American culture embarrasses him. Gail Smith, a white girl, writes that her parents object strongly to her affection for Warren Jackson and that she is considering suicide. My problems come to a head in my first meeting with the principal. The principal suggests that I decrease his use of small groups, that I abandon my dialogue journals, and that I de-emphasize the multicultural aspects of my classes. He suggests that I emphasize similarities, not differences. I don't know what to do. I do think that my methods have some value but I cannot go against my principal. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I think maybe for now you should put a hold on the journals and you could always bring them around later once things calmed down. However, If you didn't have the journals you would have never known that Gail was depressed and needs referring to a counselor. I would start by doing whole group activities and maybe play a game that was also educational about cultures. Then once the class became active on multicultural issues, I would split the class in groups of 2 and educate them on this issue and then slowly as our lesson grew larger I would put them in small groups and then eventually back to daily journals expressing themselves. I just think the class need more education about the topic but in a light approach. If the journals got to be too much again I would stop them.