way2go! 6. Practice Pack, Arbeitsheft

59 Should today’s children learn more about all cultures instead of just their own? Read the article on the pros and cons of multicultural education and match the headings to the paragraphs. There are two headings you won’t need. A Children are confronted with different types of traditions and environments. B It might create family conflict. C Children make up their own minds. D Some cultures have very different values that can influence students. E With some programmes, you could lose a little of your own identity. F Children learn to see things from a different perspective. G Children learn about a balanced range of points of view. H It is an easy way to begin vocational training. READING 4 a Multicultural education – good or bad? (1) When only one culture is learned about, it becomes easy to believe that this culture is superior to all others. A multicultural education shows children (and adults) the strengths that everyone brings to the table. (2) When we can learn from our differences, we become stronger as a people. Multicultural education encourages this process by helping us all to see the world in a different way. Sometimes what we may think is the best solution to a problem really isn’t because of what other cultures have already discovered. (3) The future world is going to be a close-knit group of individuals working together, sometimes potentially half a world away. A multicultural education today prepares students for tomorrow’s smaller working world. (4) Who we are is just as special as who others are. Many multicultural education programmes focus only on other cultures without providing an education within the culture of the student. It is important to know oneself just as it is important to know about what makes other people tick. (5) Not every culture supports racial equality. Some cultures focus on the family group only. Others believe in ruling themselves and ignore the idea of a ruling government. Some support pacifism and others support war. These different values can sometimes be confusing or have a damaging effect on a student’s education. (6) What happens if a student comes home speaking of evolution to parents who are New Earth Creationists? Or what if a student comes back to their Muslim family saying that they’ve become a Christian? Disagreements within the family, whether justified or not, often happen with a multicultural education. Find the opposites of the following expressions in the article: b a similarities b beneficial effect c inferior d weaknesses e common, ordinary f society, group Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv