Diversity in the Classroom

I was born and raised in Rocky Mountain House, which is near two first nation reserves. Therefore, there have always been a few first nation students in my class with me. That has been the only diversity in my schooling. Their culture is very different than ours; therefore, I think teachers still have to be award of this. The two reserves are not run very good and have bad reputations and many first nations’ people who come into town are drunk, so they do not have a very good reputation among the people of Rocky Mountain House. I think teachers and parents had to deal with this. I remember when I was in grade one we had about four native students in my classroom of about twenty-five students. All these students were not raised or living with their parents. One was living with their Grandma and the others were living in foster care. I remember the girl living with her Grandma was difficult and did not have a lot of friends because of this, looking back she probably had a lot harder life at age six then I did. I think she was discriminated against. Their culture is very different than ours even though their culture is a part of our Canadian culture. I think teachers should try to educate the other students about the aboriginal culture. There are many opportunities to do this, as in social studies there are many units that are about Canadian history. I think if teachers try to incorporate more of the aboriginal culture and include the first nation students in teaching the other students it would be really beneficial for everyone, as it would help make the first nation students feel included and special and also teach the other students about the wonderful and beautiful culture. I remember in grade 4 the girl’s Grandma came into our classroom to talk about their culture, because we were learning about first nation culture and the fur trade. I remember that the girl was very excited that her Grandma came in and she was able to help her Grandma explain some things about their culture. I also remember in grade 10 we learnt about residential schools and that were when many people in my grade had negative views about first nation’s people. Our teacher was from Kalona where there is a big reserve there, but it is run a lot better than the ones near Rocky, so she had a more positive view about first nation’s people. When we were learning about the residential schools there was two native girls in my class that knew people that went to a residential school, which gave another perspective that my classmates and I wouldn’t have had unless those girls were in our class.

When I become a teacher I hope I can teach students about other cultures and help other students feel proud about their culture. I think most of my teachers and schools tried to do this, as on first nation day we had assemblies where first nation’s dancers came in to share their culture and dances with us. I think I would maybe also try to encourage first nation students more, as they may not have that encouragement at home compared to other students. If I was a high school or even middle school teacher I would maybe try to “be on them more”, such as making sure that they are getting their homework done and coming to school, as their culture does not encourage school as much as ours does.   

These are two pictures of first nation’s dancers. I think some of their costumes are very pretty and unique. I worked at the Rocky Mountain House Historic Site this summer and we had a Powwow there. It was very interesting to see all their costumes and their dances. Working at the Historic site was very interesting, as I learnt a lot about the aboriginal culture and our Canadian culture.