Hubert Dyasi, director of the City College Workshop Center, New York, NY, talks about the importance of a cultural frame of reference to a child's prior knowledge, group standing, and self-esteem. Excerpted from the national videoconference, The New Definition of Learning, The First Step for School Reform
"The multicultural perspective means that everyone has a culture frame of reference that matters. That frame of reference consists inside of the web of socially constructed actions, experiences, and patterns of behavior, and the web gives a person an identity as a member of a social group. It also means that by the time the child is five years old, that child already has knowledge, experience and other attributes which are of great value to that child. The multicultural perspective is important in the curriculum because it enables us to organize learning experiences to facilitate building on what the learner brings and on the strengths of that learner. When we do that, we affirm the learner's personal and group standing, we also increase the chances of that child developing very high esteem of himself or herself and also esteem of others."