Diversity is defined as a variety of something such as opinion, color, or style. It is a mixture of many things new and old. It is a way of having options and building intellect. When many hear diversity in regards to education, one automatically visions bilingual, different students in a school setting speaking different languages. According to the definition, the bilingual assumption is classified as diversity. However, diversity in education needs to incorporate more than just different students from different countries speaking different languages in order to provide beneficial and realistic life skills.
A proper education gives a student the tools necessary to be successful in life. It provides the fundamentals of society and what is expected of a person within it. Authors of Education For The ‘Era Of The Adult’, recognize the “new” characteristics, such as knowledge and skill, that are no longer being taught in the classroom (Best and Eberhard, pp. 24). Today the times and economy is changing. The job market is shifting, and qualities that were once excellent for the markets and basic survival are now nowhere near well enough. In 2005 394, 282 United States adults were reentering school for a secondary education, with the most students being in Florida (U.S. Department of Education). Compared to the 1,009,706 adults that received a basic adult education, 394,282 may not seem like much. Though the statistics do not display whether the adults are reentering due to force by their employer or need for more skill, that is still a lot of adults needing to go back to school for career purposes. What the statistics do show is that the basics, such as math and science, no longer put a high school graduate on the top 10 list of qualified personnel. This means that new times call for new measures of adjustment, new theoretical approaches, and most importantly a new, diverse curriculum for our students.
A diverse education prepares students not only for the life of today but also tomorrow. It offers a wide array of specialties for a student to become fluent in. A diverse education allows students to put the information they learn and gather to use immediately. It teaches them to apply their knowledge on a broad and diverse platform. A diverse education promotes participation of its students. Thus, a diverse education is more beneficial to a student’s success, after the completion of high school, than the traditional math, English, history and science curriculum. According to Fred best and Ray Eberhard, authors of Education For The ‘Era Of The Adult’, “Some 41% of the jobs in 2000 will be in higher-skilled occupations, compared with 24% in 1984. The job-skill requirements of the future will not only be higher, they will be different” (pp. 25). Though there is no exact way to predict the requirements the job market will instill in the future, we could attempt to make sure that our children are in some way prepared for the change. Diversity in an educational curriculum could prepare our children for this change and potentially eliminate the skill gap which currently requires more and more adults to reenter school for the changing job market.
Today’s educational institutions should consist of a required diverse curriculum for all students in all schools. It should provide students with a well-rounded life enhancing experience. That is, it should provide options for classes other than the traditional four subject schedule. A diverse education should be comprised of music, theatre and drama, computer literacy, life skills, physical education, and language options other than Spanish. Today’s educational institutions, like those in the past, need to be the foundation at which a child can obtain basic survival skills for life beyond high school.
