Nurturing Faith

I have been a teacher for many years and love teaching. However, our school is becoming more and more multicultural. At this point we have more than nine different countries represented and over a dozen different languages spoken, at least in the home. I'm looking for ways to help each student, regardless of race, culture, or religious background, feel welcome and accepted in our school.

You have touched on a very critical element in our society today and one that is becoming more and more the norm not only for our schools but for our Church and our world. Father Robert Schreiter, a priest of the Precious Blood, in an address on Ministry for a Multicultural Church, said: "There are things about culture and intercultural communication which can be learned, and we need to learn them if we hope to be effective ministering in a multicultural church." This applies as well to a multicultural school.

True Christian community takes place within the context of the cultural heritage and the identity of the students we teach. Some suggestions:

First of all, of course, we need to be mindful of and sensitive to ethnic and cultural diversity all around us.
Encourage the young people to express their cultural uniqueness through art, music, dance, food, and dress.
Send communications home in the languages of the families, if possible.
Invite families to share their cultural symbols and food at celebrations.
Be alert to possible conflicts among students arising from ethnic or cultural differences.
Show respect for cultural differences by acknowledging special feast days, holidays, and other important times unique to each culture.

As a teacher, make it your goal to learn all that you can about the different cultures represented in your school. As teachers, we do many of these things instinctively. But perhaps today we need to learn to do them with more attention and consistency in order to bring about a warm and gentle spirit of hospitality in our schools.

View previous questions and answers in the Nurturing Faith Archive.

If you would like to submit a question to NurturingFaith, please fill out the following form, or if your browser cannot handle forms, e-mail your question to: catechist@sadlier.com. Selected questions will receive a response in this column. We're sorry we can't respond individually to every question submitted.