The project’s aim is to connect three secondary schools in the US and three secondary schools [in ]The Netherlands. The participating schools have a mixed and multi cultural school population. During the two-year project students and teachers will work and learn together in Twin-projects, as well as in collaborative setting in Learning Circles. The aim is to become aware of the richness within multi cultural (school) communities. The themes of the Learning Circles will be set by the participating schools within the domain of ‘a multicultural society’, identifying and building respect for differences and similarities. All learning activities are connected to the formal learning in schools and informal learning outside schools. To create ownership of learning the details within the framework of the project will be set in close collaboration with the participating schools, teachers and students. –twin schools | 2006-2007 | LC The richness within

My, how time flies! This project is upon us. Front and center. It seems like only yesterday that we met at the NYC iEARN offices to plan our Learning Circle, The Richness Within. Bob Hoffman from iEARN Netherlands presented Wendy Nelson Kauffman, Bridgette Francis and I with an opportunity to plan a two-year collaboration with schools in The Netherlands. I was to follow up with a multimedia introduction of myself. Must say, I have not done that, and the time is upon me. I will do that first thing, early this week. I’ll take this time tonight to blog about the project to get me focused.

The topic of the exchange is multiculturalism. There are three multicultural schools in the U.S. and three in the Netherlands that will participate:

• Baccalaureate School for Global Education
• College of Staten Island High School for International Studies
• Metropolitan Learning Center
• Het College Vos
• Oostvaarders College
• Libanon Lyceum

What does it mean for each school to claim to be multicultural? At the Baccalaureate School for Global Education (BSGE) it would be odd to “not” be multicultural because we are in Queens, NY, likely one of the most polyglot areas in the U.S.A. I have been teaching in NYC schools for 11 years and never have I seen such cultural diversity before teaching at BSGE. Here, multiculturalism is taken for granted. When I met Wendy Nelson Kauffman from Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield, CT, I learned that her school was designed to be a magnet school in order to provide an opportunity for a multicultural educational experience in an area where neighborhood schools reflect the racial make-up of those areas and tend to me mono-cultural. According to Bridgette, a teacher from College of Staten Island High School for International Studies, her school was created to break the stereotypical view that Staten Island is “white”. What does this all mean? Each school is multicultural–one is reflective of the community, one buses students in, and another designed to focus on the diversity of the area.

Well, the situations in the Netherlands’ schools will most likely present three more variations on the theme. According to Bob Hoffman, of iEARN Nederland there are “white” schools and “black” schools. Multicultural schools are a recent phenomenon. So goes the idea of the “liberal Dutch”. What does multicultural look like in the Netherlands? How does it compare to our U.S. schools? I predict that we will find as many differences among our U.S. schools, as we may in the Netherlands schools.

One of the ideas in our school’s mission statement says:

Our goal is to foster a spirit of imaginative, independent thinking
as we deepen our consciousness of global citizenship and respect
for other cultures. We believe that our school community,
through our thoughts and actions, can make the world a better
place. –Mission Statement

What will this exchange reveal about us? To what extent are we meeting the above stated goal? I wonder. What I hope to learn through this exchange is how students at our various schools understand the value of a multicultural experience. How much of their own personal identity is tied to a race, culture, religion, national origin?

I was born in the U.S.A. in New Jersey. Both sets of grandparents were immigrants. I was fortunate that they lived within a mile of my home and I got to know them all. I felt a closer kinship to my mother’s parents who were from the Netherlands and spoke “Dutch” around the house, especially when they were trying to be private. I knew my Dutch relatives. They would visit us, and in 1963 my mother took me to Holland. It was different on my father’s side. My father’s mother was from Slovakia and his father from Croatia. They were fluent in many European languages, and yet spoke none around the house. They didn’t display any pride in their heritage and there was a lot of anger about the communist take-over. When I asked my grandfather what nationality he was, he always answered: “It depends. After which war?” My grandmother was appalled when I wanted to visit her birthplace in 1972 and meet her sister and brother. She said: “Why do you want to go there? It’s all communist. They are peasants.” I went anyway, and in the end she was pleased to hear of my adventure. How does my family heritage shape me culturally? If I were a student in my school what would I say I was? When I am asked to think outside of “American” I simply think of my self as white European. So general. What does that say? I think it says a lot about the presumed “dominant culture” that I was born into. But what does that say about my identity?

technorati tags:multicultural, Netherlands, Holland, Dutch, iEARN, learningcircle, race, heritage

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