Bette Wilson: Text 2

Bette Wilson, director of multicultural education at Oak Park School District 97, Oak Park, Ill., notes that understanding children's cultures enables teachers to deseign effective teaching strategies for the classroom:

"When teachers know and understand the cultures of their children, then they begin to understand what kind of strategies they need to use in the classroom to help children learn. For example, a lot of Native American children make sense of the world through art, music, and dance, and therefore when their culture is a part of what goes on in the classroom, they become more reflective learners and more motivated, and their self-esteem tends to escalate."