The Harford County Board of Education is developing a new five-year plan to integrate multicultural education into county classrooms.
The board received a briefing Monday night from the Harford County Multicultural Task Force outlining an initial draft.
The 30-member task force, appointed in August, will conduct surveys next spring to develop ideas on how to implement the plan, said Christina Reynolds, task force chairman. The plan is to be completed by September.
"This is not a new issue and we're really not changing a whole lot," said Mrs. Reynolds, county schools supervisor of human relations and staff development.
"We have been developing materials, working with students, teachers and parents in the community for many, many years. We see it as enriching what we are already doing in classrooms."
Under state bylaws governing multicultural education, Harford schools first adopted a human relations plan to address the issue in 1972.
That plan requires that "educational programs for all schools be planned to include experiences which develop understanding and appreciation of both sexes as well as ethnic and cultural minorities."
One goal of the new plan includes "correcting the omissions and misrepresentations" of ethnic groups such as African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, plus women and individuals with disabilities."
Another goal is to eliminate "stereotypes related to race, ethnicity, region, religion, gender, socioeconomic status, age, and individuals with disabilities."
The plan will incorporate multicultural education into all subject areas, Mrs. Reynolds said.
"In fact, we don't think of it as multicultural education because to some people, that might denote that it's just a single course or something that we are just going to plug in during the school year," she said. "We call it education that is multicultural, which gives you the idea that it'll be more consistent throughout the school year."
For example, Black History Month in February wouldn't be the only time students would learn about African-American contributions, she said.
Or a history class might view events such as World War II or the collapse of the Berlin Wall through the eyes of different ethnic groups.
The multicultural plan would include four levels, she said.
Level 1 would focus on heroes, holidays and cultural elements, focusing on contributions of various groups. Level 2 entails contents, concepts, themes and perspectives added to the curriculum such as studying the genetics of ethnic groups in biology class.
In Level 3, students would view concepts, issues, events and themes from the perspectives of people from different backgrounds. For example, the students would learn how cultures celebrate holiday seasons.
Finally, in Level 4 -- the social action level -- students would make decisions on social issues and take action to help solve them. An example could be students studying about the homeless or the elderly and then creating a plan to help those groups, Mrs. Reynolds said.
The plan has met with little opposition so far, but some teachers are concerned how the idea might be implemented.
"The ideal situation is to infuse multicultural education into every aspect of the school curriculum," said Jean Thomas, president of the Harford County Education Association. "Teachers are not against that. The problem is finding the materials to use.
"Textbooks and other multimedia materials that are used in the school do not reflect multiculturalism, much less even two genders," Ms. Thomas said.
"It's as if pioneer women didn't contribute at all to the move westward. Or blacks in the American Revolution? Again, very little recognition. And the same goes for the contribution of Chinese over on the West Coast and the fact that they helped build the transcontinental railway."
Mrs. Reynolds said it was still too early to have developed details on how the curriculum will be taught. Concerns about teaching methods, new training for teachers and cost will be addressed by the task force, she said.
"We're going to take this nice and slow," Mrs. Reynolds said. "We want to involve the parents and community as much as we can to make this plan work."
Questions or concerns on the five-year plan can be directed to Mrs. Reynolds at 838-7300, Ext. 234.