Ethnic studies in Schools

    

Ethnic Studies or The Lack Thereof

     Hey all, after reading that article about the content in most schools I see that there is a problem with the number of diverse topics in the classroom.  I feel like there are a lot of topics in schools that are really important that get ignored or are labeled as unimportant.  This can be detrimental to children who do not know what they want to do in life.  In this article it was about a man who has had a passion for something his whole life but did not know about it until later in his career, and he almost never knew that it was even there.  This is the case for a lot of kids who go through public schools, they miss out on what really makes them unique. this is also the case for music students.  There are students who know that they love music but either are unable to join because of cost, bullying or even maybe their school doesn't put much into the program.  Even in these music classrooms, there is a strong focus on western music, there is very little diverse music.  This can be a problem with students because there might be children in those music classes that have a strong passion for African, or European music, but don't learn they do until later in life if ever at all.  

        Looking at where I went to school, it was a very white school, my middle school even whiter.  But there was a push to get African American history talked about, but there was a lot missing, I had never learned anything about Mexico or Canada, even the American territories.  It was ninety percent focused on western culture and our history, Americans history, which is important but the focus on it was too intense.  When I speak to people from European countries, they focus on a lot more history regarding other countries as well as their own.  I find myself really struggling to keep up with their level of intellect went it comes to other countries.  I barely can even find them on the map, but I know all fifty states.  I believe there is too strong of a focus on American history and too much of a focus on American music.