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Editors' note: In an issue focused on the gifts and strengths of multiple languages and multiple cultures in our schools, we felt multiple perspectives on policy in these areas was a better fit than a singular, authoritative voice. Therefore, in the pages that follow, we have assembled the collective wisdom of various leaders and educators who have committed their work, and often their lives, to the practice of multicultural and multilingual education.
We asked these contributors to draw on their expertise and experiences to contribute a paragraph-length statement that speaks to one stance (an ethical, informed perspective) that teachers and researchers should consider as they face challenges to multicultural and multilingual education. It is our hope that these statements create a useful set of responses to the policies and questions teachers and researchers encounter in their daily work with students and their families.
THE LIMITATIONS OF LABELS
Sonia Nieto
It was my first year of teaching. I was a 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade teacher of reading, Spanish, and French in Ocean-Hill/Brownsville in Brooklyn, a community of African Americans and Puerto Ricans that had seen more than its fair share of educational neglect. I was the first Puerto Rican teacher in the school in anyone's memory. I was also the "NE" teacher, so named because I taught the "NE" (non-English) students. Although I was perfectly fluent in English (and in Spanish), and I had a newly minted master's degree in literature, I was labeled right along with my students, and people didn't expect much from either of us.
I often think of the beginning of my teaching career because it reminds me of the damaging effect of labels on all people, children or adults. But children are not "NE," or "ELLs," or "SPED," or "at risk," or "the bilinguals," or "AFDC," or "culturally deprived," or any other label that may be in vogue at the moment. They are children, and they each embody both wonderful individuality and the cultural imprint of their families and communities. They come to us with language, ideas, experiences, and other resources that can be used in the service of their education. Being multicultural means accepting and welcoming these differences-linguistic, cultural, racial, experiential, and others-and leaving the labels behind.
FACING THE CHALLENGES...