Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and
welcome to the University of
Washington's 29th Annual Faculty Lecture
I'm Mark Emmert president of the
University and it's my great pleasure to
welcome you to this wonderful event
tonight's speaker is Dr. James A Banks
holder of the Russell F Stark University
professorship in the College of
Education and director of the
University's Center for multicultural
education his lecture is titled
democracy diversity and social justice
education in a global age dr. banks is a
leading voice in the field of
multicultural education an area of study
that reflects society's highest vision
and goals for itself in the 21st century
you'll hear tonight that he brings not
only world-class scholarship to the
matter but also his own personal
experiences of racial discrimination and
of the slow progress brought in recent
decades dr. banks remembers well our our
own unenlightened past but also he looks
to the future with hope and optimism in
delivering this address tonight dr.
banks joins a select group of
distinguished University of Washington
faculty selection for this lecture is
perhaps the highest honor our faculty
members can bestow upon one of their own
the annual faculty lecture began in 1976
to help expose the work of unit the
university's finest faculty to a wider
audience each year a faculty committee
reviews nominations sent from across the
campus looks for peers who's Mark who's
works have made a significant impact on
the profession on their research and
most importantly on the lives of their
students it could be said that dr. banks
time in public school as a teacher in
the early 1960s prepared him well for
his later work he came to the University
of Washington in 1969 after earning a
bachelor's degree in elementary
education
Social Science from Chicago State
University and then at mass tourism PhD
degrees in the same field from Michigan
State University he was the first
african-american hired as a faculty
member of the University's College of
Education and the first at the
university to earn tenure that van is in
AZ now dr. bankses work has fueled in
part by some basic questions about race
and ethnicity that he first posed at a
young age and which have remained key to
this research it's a perspective to
which we should attend closely being a
reminder both of how far we have come
and how much remains to be done dr.
banks has written more than a hundred
journal articles and has written or
edited 20 books he developed the first
courses to focus exclusively on ethnic
and cultural diversity founded the
Center for a multicultural education in
1992 and continues to serve as its
director dr. banks Vita reveals an
impressive list of honors awards and
accomplishments he's a member of both
the board of children youth and families
of the National Research Council and is
a past president of the National Council
for the society of social studies and
the American education Research
Association both of which groups later
have honored him with awards for his
distinguished career dr. banks has long
studied the thorny questions of who
constructs the knowledge used as the
building blocks for written history and
how the biographical journeys of
researchers can affect their values
research questions and the knowledge
they construct thus personal experience
and worldview can affect the nature and
tone of scholarly research dr. banks
postulates just as his own personal
experiences and our own personal
experiences inform our research in our
ever-burning curiosity members of his
own profession have referred to James
banks as one of the founders of
multicultural education
and we are proud tonight to have him
with us for this lecture and prouder
still to have him as a member of our
faculty and university community please
join me in welcoming tonight's lecture
James a banks
Thank You dr. Emerich for the nuff kind
introduction there is increasing
diversity as well as an increasing
recognition of diversity in nation
states throughout the world after World
War two large numbers of people
emigrated from the former colonies and
Asia Africa in the West Indies to the
United Kingdom to improve the economic
status since the 1960's thousands of
people from diverse language cultural
racial and religious groups have
immigrated to nations such as Germany
France and the Netherlands Australia and
Canada have also experienced increased
diversity caused by immigrant groups
seeking better economic opportunities
nations that traditionally have been
thought of as homogeneous such as Japan
and Sweden now acknowledge their
diversity although the population of the
US has been diverse since the founding
period its ethnic composition has
changed dramatically since the
immigration reform Act was passed in
1965 in the 19th and early 20th
centuries most immigrants to the u.s.
came from Europe today most come from
nations in Asia in Latin America a
significant number also come from the
West Indies in Africa the unit u.s. is
now experiencing its largest influx of
immigrants since the late 19th and early
20th centuries the u.s. census projects
that ethnic groups of color or ethnic
minorities and tonight I'm going to use
those terms anonymously if there was
time I could explain the difference the
census projects that ethnic groups of
color or ethnic minorities will increase
from twenty-eight percent of the
nation's population today to 50 percent
in the year 2050 you may have heard that
whites are becoming a minority that is
not true
spread the good news
they are not becoming a minority you
hear that I'm going to you've heard that
that is not true at least but by 2050
they'll still be half the population and
I think that I'd like to erase that
misconception because I think it's very
important that we learned at least
something tonight if you learn nothing
else if you if you learn nothing else
you've learned that that whites will not
become a minority at least until after
2050 racial cultural ethnic and language
and religious diversity is also
increasing in the United States as well
as in other nations increasing in the
schools that is 40 percent of the
students and rolls and US schools are
students of color 40 percent this
resurgence is increasing primarily
because the increase of mexican-american
students in some of the nation's largest
cities such as Chicago Los Angeles
Washington DC New York in San Francisco
half or more of the public school
students are students of color 59% of
the students in the see all school
districts or ethnic minorities in 2002
students of color made up 65 percent of
the student population in the public
schools of California the nation's
largest state language and religious
diversity is also increasing in the
nation students population about 20% of
the u.s. village populations speak a
language at home other than English
immigrant students are the fastest
growing population of US public schools
the percentages of African Americans who
are foreign-born is also increasing the
census estimates that 8 percent or 2.2
million of the of the African American
population is foreign born and that is
really significant in the New York in a
recent article in The New York
time's it indicated that more blacks
were coming to the US since the period
of the middle passage of our the slave
trade and I think that's very
significant there is a wide racial and
cultural gap however between teachers
and students while forty percent of the
nation's students are at the minorities
most of the nation's teachers are white
and speak only English white teachers
make up about 86 percent of the nation's
teachers and the percentage of white
teachers in the nation schools will not
change in the foreseeable future the
vast majority of the students enrolls in
college and university programs that
prepare teachers are white the
significant changes in the racial ethnic
and language groups that make up the
nation's population creates a
demographic imperative for educators to
respond to diversity diversity offers
both opportunities and challenges to our
nation to schools into teachers
diversity enriches our nation
communities classrooms and schools
individuals from many different groups
have made and continue to make
significant contributions to American
society diversity also provides our
society with many different and enriched
ways to identify describe and solve
social economic and political problems
diversity also provides schools colleges
and universities with an opportunity to
educate students in an environment that
reflects the reality of the nation in
the world and to teach students from
diverse groups how to get along a
diverse school environment enables
students from many different groups to
engage in discussions to solve complex
problems related to living in a
multicultural nation in world however
diversity also poses serious challenges
to our nation to schools
to teachers research indicates the
students come to school with many
stereotypes misconceptions and negative
attitudes toward outside groups here is
an example from a study by two
researchers caller a three year old
child is preparing for resting time she
picks up her cot and starts to move it
to the other side of the classroom the
teacher asked what she's doing I need to
move this Karla explains why the teacher
asks because I can't sleep next to a
black Karla says pointing to Nicole a
four year old black child on a cot
nearby blacks are stinky I can't sit
next to one stunned the teacher who is
white tells Karla to move her cot back
and not to use hurting words without
curriculum intervention by teachers the
racial attitudes and behaviors of
children become more negative and harder
to change as children grow older
consequently an important aim of
multicultural education is to provide
students with experiences and materials
that will help them develop more
positive attitudes and values and
behaviors for individuals from different
groups the wide gap between the academic
achievement of students of color such as
African Americans and Mexican Americans
and whites and group of Asian Americans
such as Chinese and Japanese Americans
is another important challenge in
diverse schools into a multicultural
society I will discuss the academic
achievement gap later in my presentation
during the last three decades my work
has focused on ways to reform schools so
that they will increase the academic
achievement of diverse groups and help
all students develop democratic racial
attitudes and a commitment to democracy
and social justice education in a
democratic society should help students
apply the knowledge attitudes and skills
needed to become productive workers
within society as well as develop the
commitment attitudes and skills to work
to make our nation in the world just
places in which to live and work we
should educate students to be effective
citizens of both their nation in the
world an important goal of multicultural
education is to improve race relations
and to help all students apply the
knowledge attitudes and skills needed to
participate in cross-cultural
interactions an impersonal social and
civic action that will help make our
nation and world more democratic and
just the goal of multicultural education
is to teach students to know to care and
to act I will return to these three
goals later in my presentation
multicultural education is as important
for middle and high income white
suburban student as it is for students
of color who live in the inner city the
story is told about a wealthy child near
Hollywood from the shark change children
of the suburbia if this story indicates
why multicultural legends needed by all
of the nation's students the story is
told about a little girl in school near
Hollywood who was asked to write a
composition about a poor family the
essay began this family was very poor a
mommy was poor the daddy was poor the
brothers and sisters were poor the maid
was four
the nurse was four the butler was four
the cook was four and the chauffeur was
four multicultural education fosters the
public good in the overarching goals of
the United States multicultural
education is trying to Americanize
America and to help it to actualize its
ideals that are stated in its founding
documents the Declaration of indepen
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
that is the essence of the multicultural
education project which has brought the
nation closer to the democratic ideals
stated in its founding documents school
based reforms are needed to help
students learn how to live together and
civic moral and just communities that
respect and value the rights and
cultural characteristics of all students
such efforts are made more difficult
because a large percentage of students
attend single race schools and because
segregation often exists within racially
and ethnically mixed schools that use
tracking and special programs to meet
the special needs of student groups the
average white child attends a school
that is over 78 percent white the
average black child attends the school
that is over fifty-seven percent black
the average Hispanic child attends a
school that is over fifty-seven percent
Hispanic the average age in child
attends a school that is over 19% Asian
segregation is very much a fact of
school life in America what have we
learned in the last three decades about
ways in which schools can be transformed
in order to increase the academic
achievement of students from diverse
groups and improve race relations
I have categorized the major research
and scholarship that has been done of
the last 30 years into five dimensions
which I call the dimensions of
multicultural education I summarized
this research and a chapter in the
handbook of research on multicultural
education tonight I will briefly
describe each of these dimensions in
some of the significance insights that
have been gained from research
scholarship and wisdom of practice
the five dimensions are content
integration the knowledge construction
process prejudice reduction in equity
pedagogy and in empowering school
culture I will discuss each of these
dimensions in turn I will start with
content integration content integration
deals with the extent to which teachers
use examples and content from a variety
of cultures in their teaching research
indicates that when teachers include
examples of content from different
racial and ethnic groups students
develop more positive racial attitudes
toward these groups and their
stereotypes of other groups are
challenged research also indicates that
students become more engaged and active
learners when teachers incorporate
information about their cultures
histories and experiences into the
curriculum the next dimension I will
discuss is the knowledge construction
process this process describes extent to
which teachers help students understand
investigate and determine how the
cultural assumptions frames of reference
perspectives and biases within a
discipline influence the ways in which
knowledge is constructed within it
scholarship and ethnic studies in
Women's Studies indicates that knowledge
in the popular culture in the media and
in textbooks reflects the biographies
perspectives in cultural experiences of
the scientists social scientists and
historians who created that knowledge
the knowledge in the school curriculum
and within textbooks has a powerful
influence on how students view and
experience the world I will give an
example from the textbooks that I use in
school in the 1950s I was an elementary
school student in the Arkansas Delta in
the 1950s
one of my most powerful memories of my
school days is the image of the happy
and Laurel slaves in my social studies
textbooks I also remember that there
were three other blacks and my social
studies textbooks Booker T Washington
the educator George Washington Carver
the scientist and Marian Anderson the
classical singer
I had several persistent question
throughout my school days why were the
slaves pictures as happy
were there other blacks in history
beside the two Washington's and Anderson
who created this image of slaves why the
image of the happy slaves was
inconsistent with everything I knew
about the african-american descendants
of enslaved people in my segregated
community we had to drink water from
fountains labeled colored and we could
not use the city's public library but we
were not happy about either of these
legal requirements in fact we resisted
these laws and powerful but subtle ways
each day as children we savor the taste
of white water when the authorities were
were preoccupied with more serious
infractions against the racial caste
system the civil rights movement that
emerged in the 1960s which consisted of
marches and protests contradicted the
notion that African Americans and the
South were happy with their condition
throughout my schooling these questions
remain cogent as I tried to reconcile
the presentations of African Americans
and textbooks with the people I knew in
my family and community I wanted you to
know why these images were highly
divergent my epistle
optical quests to find out why the
slaves were represented as happy became
a lifelong journey that continues and
the closer I think I am to the answer
the more difficult and complex both my
question and the answers become the
question why were the slaves represented
as happy has taken different forms in
various periods of my life such as why
did a book like the bell curve which
argues that blacks are genetically
inferior to whites remain of the New
York Times bestseller list for many
weeks I now believe along with scholars
such as Sandra Harding Lorraine Cole
Patricia Hill Collins and met Matthew
Jacobson but the biographical journeys
of researchers greatly influenced their
values their research questions and the
knowledge they construct the knowledge
they construct mirrors their life
experiences in their values I discovered
through historical research but the
paradigm of the happy slaves was
constructed by Ulrich B Phillips and
described in his 1918 book American
Negro slavery Phillips who was a
descendant descendant of slave owners
emphasized the benign treatment of the
slaves in their happiness the Phillips
slavery paradigms was institutionalized
in the popular culture and in schools
colleges and universities it was not
seriously challenged by mainstream
historians until the mid 1950s the 1960s
in the 1970s by historians such as
Kenneth's down Stanley Elkin and John
Blasingame
however the Philip slavery paradigm was
challenged from the academic margins and
by african-american scholars such as
Carnegie Woodson and WB do boy when
American Negro slavery was first
published in
19:18 the next dimension i will discuss
is an equity pedagogy in activity
pedagogy exists when teachers modify
their teaching in ways that will
facilitate the academic achievement of
students from diverse racial cultural
gender and social class groups
culturally responsive teaching a form of
equity pedagogy is used to help close
the achievement gap many explanations
have been given for the achievement gap
multicultural education and theories
believe but the difference between the
home cultures of an RD student and the
school culture is a major reason for the
low academic achievement of minority
students during the last three decades
researchers have been investigating ways
in which teachers can make use of
elements from the cultures of students
to increase their academic achievement
researchers have described ways in which
the languages dialects and home cultures
of low-income students and students of
color can be used to motivate them to
learn many studies describe the
difference between the home culture and
the school culture and describe ways in
which teachers can build up on the home
culture to enhance the Cheeseman
researchers have described the ways in
which verbal interactions differ in the
school and in the homes of Navajo
students and how language use among
white middle class teachers the white
working-class and the black
working-class differs some researchers
have described how teachers can use the
home language of low-income African
American students which is called black
English as a vehicle to help them master
Standard English many of you will recall
the contentious debate of a black
English that occurred in the Oakland
Public Schools in 1996 when the district
proposed using black English
a vehicle to teach African American
students standard English this
recommendation is quite consistent with
research by linguist research indicates
that an effective way to teach students
a second language is to build up on
their home language or dialect rather
than try to eradicate it
some studies provide evidence to support
the idea that when teachers use
culturally responsive teaching the
academic achievement of minority
students increase professor Catherine
owl at the University of Hawaii found
that if teachers use participation
structures in lessons that were similar
to the Hawaiian speech event talk story
the reading achievement of Native
Hawaiian students increased
significantly the chief characteristic
of talk story is John performance of the
cooperative production of responses of
two or more speakers for example if the
subject is going surfing one of the boys
begins by recounting the events of a
particular day but he will immediately
invite one of the other boys to join in
and to helped to describe the events the
two bars will alternate its speakers
each telling part of the story with
other children occasionally chiming in
top story is very different from
recitations in most classrooms in which
the teacher usually calls on an
individual child to tell a story
professor kelp Cara Lee at Northwestern
University has found that the
achievement of african-american students
increases from their taught literary
interpretations with the lessons that
use the african-american verbal practice
of signifying signifying is a genre with
an african-american speech that involves
ritual Insull such as playing the dozen
and many of you will know what I'm
talking about and the rest of you I can
tell you during the reception
what signifying is is about and playing
the dozen is about
signifying also involves a high use of
figurative language professor Charlie
brycie
at Stanford University discovered that
african-american children in the
southern community would not answer
questions that they felt that the
teacher no the Institute they felt why
answer why answer that question for
example the teacher would ask what color
is this dish and how many fingers do I
have and they wouldn't answer they said
she knows the answer to that question
what what happened because they wouldn't
answer the question the teacher thought
they weren't intelligent but they didn't
answer the question because they thought
it was silly because in their culture
people only asked all three big
questions when they really wanted to
know the answer so that but surely he
this tried to do is try to help teachers
drop on the cultural frames of these
kids in order to increase their academic
achievement you know it's not
unreasonable to assume finance the
question if the person knows the answer
it's not not quite unreasonable they're
not very unreasonable the next dimension
is prejudice reduction this dimension
focused on the characteristics of
students racial attitudes and how they
can be modified by teaching methods and
materials research indicates that the
use of multicultural textbooks other
teaching materials in cooperative
teaching strategies that enable students
from different racial groups to interact
positively in equal status situations
help students develop democratic racial
attitudes these kinds of materials and
teaching strategies can also result in
students choosing more friends from
outside racial ethnic and cultural
groups since the 1940s a number of
curriculum intervention studies have
been conducted to determine the effects
of teaching units and within lessons
multicultural textbooks and material
role-playing and other kinds of
simulated experiences on the racial
attitudes and perceptions of students
these studies indicate that curricular
materials and interventions can help
students develop positive racial
attitudes and perceptions these studies
provide guidelines that can help
teachers improve intergroup relations in
their classrooms and schools when they
have students such as Carlo but I
referred to earlier with the cot if you
remember that anecdote and that's um a
real study by the way it wasn't
contrived one of the earliest curriculum
studies was conducted in 1952 Carl they
learn what they live it examined the
effects of a democratic multiple
cultural curriculum on the racial
attitudes of children and the first and
second grades the curriculum had a
positive effect on the attitudes of both
the students and the teachers and what
the studies indicate that in order for
students to learn democracy they must
experience a democratic curriculum in a
democratic classrooms research indicates
that when schools create superordinate
groups and that is groups with which
members of all the groups in a situation
identify relations can be improved when
membership in a subordinate group is
salient other groups differences become
less important creating superordinate
groups stimulates liking in cohesion
which can mitigate pre-existing
animosities an example of a
superordinate group is a basketball team
that includes black white and
mexican-american students who are
working together to beat an opponent in
this situation race and ethnicity become
less important than beating the opponent
the next dimension I will discuss is an
empowering school culture an empowering
school culture is used to describe the
process of restructuring the culture and
organization of the school
so the students from diverse groups will
experience educational equality in
cultural empowerment research in theory
indicate that creating a successful
school for low-income students in
students of color requires restructuring
the culture and organization of the
school research indicates that the
culture of some schools fosters high
academic achievement and that the other
and that the culture of other schools is
not and a very important point I'd like
to make is that some of the effective
schools are in inner cities and some are
are in suburbs it doesn't mean because
the school is in inner city it's not
effective in raising achievement so in
fact a school with an effect of
achievement culture can be in an
inner-city low-income district or it can
be in the suburbs and vice versa the key
is the cultural characteristics of the
school researchers call these effective
schools effective are improving schools
what are some of their characteristics
this research has been down of a period
of 30 years what are some of the
characteristics of an effective school
and I'll just list a few first safe and
orderly environment secondly a shared
faculty faculty commitment to improve
achievement in orientation focused on
identifying and solving problems hi
faculty cohesion and collaboration in
other words teachers have to be
professionals hi faculty input and
decision-making now think about the high
stakes test to what extent are teachers
involved and in determining testing in
their schools teachers need to be
involved if we're going to have an
effective school and finally in an
effective school because a school-wide
emphasis on recognizing positive
performance and high academic
achievement
because we live in a global society that
is highly interconnected in effective
education for the 21st century prepare
students for thoughtful citizenship in
their communities the nation in the
world worldwide immigration and
globalization raises new questions about
how to prepare students for thoughtful
and active citizenship multicultural
societies are faced with the problem of
constructing nation-states that reflect
and incorporate the diversity of its
citizens and yet have an overarching set
of shared values ideals and goals to
which all of its citizens are committed
diversity and unity must be balanced in
multicultural nation states only when a
nation-state is unified around a set of
democratic values such as justice and
equality and it protects the rights of
cultural ethnic and language groups and
enable them to experience cultural
democracy in freedom in a democratic
society ethnic and immigrant groups
should have the right to maintain their
ethnic cultures in languages as well as
participate in the National Civic
culture the Canadian political theories
will chemical calls this concept
multicultural citizenship in 1924 horse
Cowen called it cultural democracy and
indeed the term cultural democracy has
been rediscovered and reinvented he is a
very important concept for our field
today we believe that along with
political democracy we must also have
cultural democracy an assimilationist
conception of citizenship education
existed in most Western democratic
nation states prior to the rise of the
ethnic Relient revitalization movements
in the 60s and 70s a major goal of
citizenship education in these nations
was to create a nation-state
in which our group shared one dominant
mainstream culture it was assumed that
ethnic and immigrant groups would
forsake their original cultures in order
to become full citizen of the
nation-state nationalists in the
simulations throughout the world worried
that if they allow students to maintain
identification with their cultural
communities they will not acquire
sufficiently strong attachments to their
nation states nationalists in the
simulation is have a zero sum concept of
identity the theoretical and empirical
work of multicultural scholars indicate
that identity is multiple changing
overlapping and contextual rather than
fixed and Static in that thoughtful and
clarified cultural identification will
enable people to be more thoughtful
reflective in active citizens of the
Civic community balancing unity and
diversity is a continuing challenge for
multicultural nation-states unity
without diversity results in hegemony
and oppression diversity without unity
leads to balkanization in the fracturing
of the nation-state a major problem
facing the nation-state is how to
recognize and legitimize difference in
yet construct an overarching national
identity that incorporates the values
experiences hopes and dreams of the
diverse groups that compose it
assimilationist notion of citizenship
are ineffective today because of the
deepening diversity throughout the world
in the quest by marginalized groups for
cultural recognition and rights
multicultural citizenship is essential
for today's a global age
it recognizes and legitimizes the right
and needs of citizens to maintain
commitments vote both to their cultural
communities into the National Civic
culture Martha Nussbaum states that we
should help students develop
cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitan's view
themselves as citizens of the world
Nussbaum states that they their
allegiance is to the worldwide community
of human beings Cosmopolitan's are ready
to immerse themselves and other cultures
engage with difference and acquire
cultural capital Nussbaum contrasts
cosmopolitan universalism and
internationalism with parochial
ethnocentrism and inward-looking
patriotism students should develop a
delicate balance of cultural national
and global identifications cultural
national and global experiences in
identification are interactive in
interrelated in a dynamic way each needs
to be developed in the schools teachers
need to help students develop cultural
and national identifications that are
critical in thoughtful nationalism and
national attachments in most nations are
strong in tenacious an important aim of
citizenship education should be to help
students develop global identifications
the ways in which people are moving back
and forth across national borders
challenge the notion of educating
citizens to function in one nation-state
many people have more than one national
identity and live in multiple places
students also need to develop a deep
understanding of the need to take action
as citizens of the global community to
help solve the world's difficult global
problems
a goal of multicultural citizenship
education is to teach students to know
to care in to act in order to increase
social justice in their communities the
nation in the world I will discuss each
of these goals in turn teaching students
to know to care and to act first to know
when we teach students to know we help
them acquire deep knowledge and
understanding about the various groups
within the United States in the world we
also help them to understand concepts
and events from the perspectives of
different groups and from the
perspectives of men and women when we
teach students to view events and
concepts from diverse perspectives we
are using what bell hooks calls a
pedagogy of freedom which help students
to view the nation in the world the
young that course cultural borders and
perspectives when we are helping
students to gain diverse perspectives on
the nation in the world it is important
for them to view events from the
perspectives and experiences of groups
that have been neglected in the popular
culture and in the schools for example
we need to put the voices of women into
the curriculum when it is being
transformed they have done as absent
from black and brown history as they
have done from white history ala Baker
Fannie Lou Hamer and Daisy Bates are
examples of african-american women
who've been large largely neglected in
civil rights history and in the popular
culture students learn about men in the
civil rights movement such as Martin
Luther King and Jesse Jackson but very
little about women in the civil rights
movement such as Daisy Bates and Fannie
Lou Hamer Baker practically ran the
day-to-day operations of the southern
Christian Leadership Conference behind
the scenes however the men in SCLC such
as Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy get
most of the credit invisibility and
history votes bringing the voices of
women distill history help students gain
new perspectives on the American
experience an example is the story of
Rosa Parks we learn in the popular
culture and in many textbooks the parks
did not give up her seat to a white
rider because she was tired
however parks writes in her book with
Jim Haskin Rosa Parks my story and I
quote people always say that I didn't
give up my seat because I was tired but
that isn't true I was not tired
physically I'm no more tired than I
usually was at the end of a working day
I was not old although some people have
an image of me of being old then I was
42 no the only child I was was tired of
giving in the multicultural curriculum
also help students to rethink and to
examine taken for granted concept such
as the new world wasn't new to the
Native Americans they had been here for
30,000 years the European discovery of
America pioneers a sure neighbor
what would a Lakota Sioux call a pioneer
ask your neighbor well you can do it at
the reception think of what would a
Lakota Sioux called a pioneer but will
it look old a Sioux called a settler
what would a lo Lakota Sioux call the
westward movement
what about manifest destiny what about
American exceptionalism the westward
movement had very different meanings for
different groups for the Mexicans that
was north for the Alaskans it was south
for the Japanese it was ease it was
of the universe for the Lakota Sioux
writes Patricia Hal writes historian
Patricia Nelson Limerick and I quote the
Mexicans came North the Chinese and
Japanese came east the Alaskans went
south
the Native Americans tried hard to stay
put they fought to stay where they were
they did not want to move in dove quote
the more perspectives that students
learn the better they will understand
our nation in world to know to care and
to act we also have two teachers once
students know they have to care
education is a moral endeavor we should
educate both the hearts and minds of
students and teach them to care Horace
Mann said to the graduates and his
committee and address at Antioch College
in 1859 he said be ashamed to die until
you've won some victory for humankind
Margaret Mead said that a handful of
thoughtful committed people can change
the world
indeed it is the only thing that has to
know to care to act students must know
they must care but they also with act
during the Nazi period in Germany not
enough people it was a very
knowledgeable society they knew deeply
but not enough cared and acted to act to
know to care interact don t said that
the worst place in hell is for is
reserved for those in times of great
moral crisis take a neutral stand Edmund
Burke said that the only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men
and women to do nothing if it we cannot
be neutral and the difficult and
challenging times in which we now live
if it were announced that was a fire in
this room how many of us would sit here
and be neutral Martin Luther King's
Junior's life exemplified knowing caring
and acting when teaching about Martin
Luther King's life teachers need to go
beyond King's dream speech and describe
the tremendous controversy that
surrounded his life both African
Americans and white harshly criticized
King for his position on the Vietnam War
it was okay for him to work for civil
rights but when he started opposing the
war people said that's too far
how did King respond in one of his last
speeches he said and I quote it is my
deep conviction that justice is
indivisible that injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere for those
who tell me I'm hurting the civil rights
movement and ask don't you think that in
order to be respected and in order to
gain support you must stop talking
against the war I can only say that I'm
not a consensus leader I do not seek to
determine what is right and wrong by
taking a Gallup poll to determine
majority opinion and it is again my deep
conviction but ultimately a genuine
leader is not a search of consensus but
a molder of consensus on some position
the coward asked the question is it safe
expediency ask the question is it
poverty vanity ask the question is it
popular but consciousness ask the
question is it right and thus and there
comes a time when one must take a stand
that is neither safe nor politic not
popular but one must take it because it
is right and that is where I find myself
today
King also said that we will live
together as brothers and sisters or dog
suffering in a party strangers in 1971
James Baldwin in an open letter to
Angela Davis stated by multicultural
education is essential in a democratic
and just nation and world he wrote if we
know then we must fight for your life as
though it were our own which it is and
render impassable with our bodies the
card is to the gas chamber for if they
come for you in the morning they will
come for us that night thank
well Jim thank you so very much that was
truly extraordinary and an obvious
reflection of why your faculty
colleagues have such high regard for you
and I think it's also adding a very nice
note to what I'm very pleased to
announce tonight because there's
something that is very special about
this evening also because I have the
great pleasure of announcing that
through the generous contributions of
Washington Mutual and CEO of Washington
Mutual Kerry Killinger and his wife
Linda Killinger there has been created a
million dollar new endowed chair in
multicultural education in the College
of Education
and the purpose of less endowed chair is
to make sure that there is always a
faculty member in the college whose
research and teaching attends to the
critical issues of diversity in k-12
education but furthermore I am delighted
to announce that this evenings lecturer
Professor James banks is the first
holder of the Kari and Linda Killinger
endowed chair and diversity studies
congratulations Jim what a wonderful
and thank you of course to Washington
Mutual and the killing Jews who
unfortunately weren't able to be here
tonight for their wonderful generosity
we are delighted that they care so much
about this critical issue in this
wonderful wonderful faculty member thank
you all for being here tonight
you
