The school reform movement termed multiculturalism requires us to think deeply about our roles as elementary, secondary, and arts teachers. Since prehistoric times, all peoples have had informal and, at times, formal teachers who have helped the younger generation to understand and create meanings of and for life. We may have lost sight of this essential teaching mission, of life's meaning, and we may have become bogged down in the teaching of school subjects or disciplines in a way that they are no longer connected to the students' lives in contemporary institutional education.
For this reason, it is important to understand culture and cultural diversity because culture provides …