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Equal Opportunities Through Multicultural Education
Teacher Grecu Maria, Costeşti Technological High School, Argeș
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Frequently, the presence of different people leads to disinterest and indifference, which, in the end, is nothing more than a form of discrimination. This manifests itself in multiple areas, from public service providers to employment opportunities, level of production, housing, political organization and representation, access to education. Another manifestation of our diversity is prejudice and stereotypes, either in their negative form, what we think about others (intolerance, racism), or positive, what we think about ourselves (Arianism). They generate discriminatory behavior. Educational institutions must take appropriate measures to eliminate any form of discrimination within them. They must help students develop non-discriminatory identities, acquire and develop the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills needed to combat inequities in all their forms. In this regard, pedagogues need to be aware of their own prejudices, to be properly trained, to take into account the social conditions and needs of minorities. It is essential to recognize the importance of the social, economic and even cultural role that minority groups play and have played within society. All children must be educated to participate fully and contribute to a democratic society. This means that basic democratic principles must be passed on to them. In this way, they engage in the defense of democratic values, acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities. They include a commitment to a just and humane social order, mutual trust, respect for the rights and identities of others, openness, analytical skills, interpersonal skills. In this context, gypsy education is an unresolved issue, with visible social consequences. The difficulties encountered are generated by the following categories of causes: related to the way of life of gypsy (poverty, traditions), those related to the attitude of teachers and other responsible factors involved in gypsy education, a lack of legislative correlation on social protection and educational policy. Often undeclared, the marginalization of gypsy goes from the less benevolent attitude towards students, their placement in the last benches, to the abandonment of the classes in which gypsy children study. Some schools are reluctant to introduce the study of the Romanian language or to some measures to adapt the educational process to the concrete educational needs of gypsy students. Gypsy students often end up in situations of failure and school dropout. Many of them do not finish high school. Then the question arises: how much is owed to those who drop out of school, this fact, and how much to the school? There are many teachers and leaders who exclaim at the
beginning of the school year, with bitterness and disguised revolt: I don't know what to do, because I have three gypsies in class! And this, before you know them. All educators should imagine a six- or seven-year-old child, whom, one September day, his mother takes by the hand and they go to a place he has heard about by chance, where he knows that he was the older brother, but only for a few months. The child is shocked, he enters a world he has never seen. Here he no longer understands anything being said and can only communicate with a few of those around him. The days go by and where they are, you don't see anything or you don't hear too many words to understand. From time to time, the woman he stays with for four hours a day approaches him and tells him something. The nightmare continues until the mother, fed up with the daily crying of the child who comes home, fulfills his wish: he will do whatever is asked of him, but not to go to school. The example is an extreme one, but it reveals one of the main needs of some gypsy students, probably of the most disadvantaged: education in the mother tongue or better than this, bilingual education, in which Romanian is learned through the gypsy language. This is not enough, however. The language disability derives from or intertwines with a social one. The six- to seven-year-old is not guilty of anything, because he heard or spoke only the gypsy language or because he could not be taken to kindergarten. Moreover, he is not to blame, because his parents barely speak the Romanian language and could not learn it, because in his backpack, if any, there are only two notebooks and a pen or, because in the place where he lives, the running water is only a dream. Beyond the lack of clothing or the material and environmental conditions for learning, gypsy children are progressively alienated from school, due to the attitude of colleagues and / or teachers or due to absences and lagging behind. All children must learn to live and interact positively in this diverse world. Achieving this goal has major implications at all levels of compulsory education: politics, structures, organizations, administration, school-community relations; staff restructuring and training; pedagogy; evaluation; selection and distribution of students; tutoring; the education system and services such as food, the physical environment and the school ethos in general. To change the ideology that rejects or subordinates minority groups, to make the holders of power operate in a just and humane manner. Equal opportunities must mean, in fact, offering multiple options for different abilities and skills, an education for all, an education open to all people, regardless of age and socio-economic conditions, an education for each, according to his needs, avoiding homogenization and encouraging diversity, which creates the premises for equal access to social life.
Bibliography Achim, Viorel, Gypsies in the history of Romania, Bucharest, Encyclopedic Publishing House, 1998 Crețu, Carmen, Differentiated and personalized Curriculum, Iași, Polirom Publishing House, 1998 Dănescu, Elena, Integrated education of students with special educational needs, Pitești, Univ. from Pitesti, 2010 Pon, Emmanuelle, Gypsies in Romania - a minority in transition, Bucharest, Compania Publishing House, 1999
