>... have to learn how to
>deal with diversity and they have to learn how to teach students from
>different linguistic backgrounds. This can be very discouraging indeed for
>many of them. But, I have a chance to work with them. My experience tells
>me that students are usually quite open-minded and receptive to new ideas
>and challenges.
> In short, I have to be better prepared, which includes having
>anticipated the opposing views most likely to emerge and how to handle them.
I teach an English Ed course on writing to students at the University of
Illinois, many of whom are white, at least middle-class, and from
well-funded schools. I have been starting with Mike Rose's book, _Lives on
the Boundary_. The book has problems in several senses, but his
autobiographical account of a working-class Italian growing up on the
margins of schooling and society and the explicit connection with a more
diverse group of students when Rose becomes a teacher does seem to help my
students orient to (maybe sympathize with?) critical perspectives on
schooling and society.
Paul Prior
p-prior who-is-at uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign