Diversity in Education and Curriculum Concepts - Book Review

Are you interested in a future in teaching, education administration, or becoming a social worker, or school psychologist, then there is a book, which I'd like to recommend that your read, and then I'd like to give you a more than fair assessment of this work.

"Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society," by Donna M. Gollnick and Philip C. Chinn, Pearson Merrill a Prentice Hall Company, Upper Saddle River, NJ, (2006), pp. 404, ISBN: 0-13-119719-3.

This book was quite interesting to me, and its first publishing was in 1983 and it has been upgraded and republished every few years since. I felt as if the book was very hard to use because it has the Preface prior to the table of contents, which makes navigating very tough. The preface is quite good and explains how the book is formatted.

Once into the book it is very easy to follow along, even the most blithering idiot could use this book and understand it, perhaps, that is their target reader; at least this is the impression I got, and speaking of impression, I believe this book is trying to brainwash the "education student" who has an impressionable mind, this is my opinion based on reading it.

Indeed, as a coordinator for a think tank online I was really worried that such books are indeed being used to train and teach new teachers and college professionals, and students who will go into the educational profession as administrators, professors, psychologists, etc. There are chapters on social classes, race, homosexuality, diversity, gender, religion, and age. There are sub-chapters such as; Hate Groups

Racial Identification

Bullying

Self Esteem

Sexual Harassment

Anyway, you get the idea of what this wonderful book is all about, unfortunately after reading through it all, I decided I really didn't have room on my many book shelves for it. And I chose not to donate it to a Thrift Store, and I failed to put it into the recycle bin - it has gone straight into the trash. But, I think this is a great book for a neo-liberal-socialist. And I recommend that you read this book so you can understand how all this political correctness has permeated in our society and how it started in academia.

This book also had everything reiterated and duplicated on a CD ROM with videos, and roll-playing on each chapter. I suppose this is for those in academia who cannot read well, and yet, might still be teaching our children and kids. Look, anyone who is serious about teaching needs to understand how it all works, and what it's all about, even if you disagree with every single aspect of it. This is why I read the book, and duly discharged to where I believe it belongs. Please consider this.

The Ever Changing Curriculum of School Education

School reforms are always a hot topic when it comes to government proposals and even PTA meetings. Obviously the majority of parents have their children's education as one of their top priorities as they want the best for their children in and after school. As a result government proposals are often being made to change the education system in Britain in an effort to make it better. This results in a lot of proposals being thrown into the mix as education from early primary to graduation undergo alterations. As they say, "the times, they are a changin".

The key factor in changing childhood education is society. As society changes so do the ways we educate our children in order to integrate them into it successfully as adults. At the moment one of the biggest topics relates to British Citizenship. With the growth of the EU and an influx of immigrants from countries such as Poland and Romania the shape of British culture is changing.

As a result Citizenship classes are springing up in schools to provide even very young children with education on being British and assist in the integration of foreign nationals. Another change that this shift in culture is causing is the change of languages taught in school. While French and German remain, other languages such as Polish and Urdu are becoming more prominent.

Schools are now more than ever being geared toward providing children with life skills that will assist them after school. Money Management classes (like those seen in the Bank of Scotland adverts) are becoming more popular as they seek to teach children to learn how to budget and handle money when they reach employment. These classes are backed up by the introduction of career advice and advice on gaining employment. These career advice classes are being touted to even primary schoolchildren. In addition to this there are proposals to expand IT classes.

While not everyone agrees with these changes it is important to remember that schools have been reforming and changing for decades to fit with the changing society. The only constant seem to be that there will always be a need for essential equipment such as classroom furniture as educational supplies. They are, after all, the staple diet of any educational establishment.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how educational reforms affect the way society progresses in the years to come.

Sam Qam has seen school change a great deal since his time from the classroom furniture to the educational supplies.