I grew up in a very small community, small enough that it warranted the title of “village”. As a child I never thought about the culture(s) I participated in, something that is likely true for many children. My father emigrated here from the Philippines to attend university in Virginia where he met my mother. My mother is of European and Native American descent, making my brother and I “multicultural”.  Growing up the differences I noticed between my peers and myself were different than they are today, and the way I understand my identity continues to become increasingly different as time passes.

Being raised in an especially rural, midwestern town there was a persistent conversation surrounding our cultural identities. Initially, it was comprised of questions like “Where are you from?”, “What do you eat at home?”, and statements like “You must be adopted. You don’t look like your mom.” To a child of 6 or 8 years of age, these statements and questions were puzzling. Why would they ask where I was from? Here, clearly. I’m standing right here. What does it matter if I look like my mom? At this age, I wanted nothing more than to play at recess and be selected to pick-up the lunch boxes after lunch.

The conflict continued in my teen years as I struggled with feeling justified in identifying with a culture that my genetics equated to only 50%. It was increasingly difficult when classmates would say, “You’re Hispanic.” or “You’re Mexican.” I still did not yet have a grasp on my cultural identity, or how to explain it to others. It was frustrating to explain the influence of Spain on the Philippines, but that it was an independent culture. It was tiring to explain that dark hair and features are not attributes of one specific identity.  

As I continued on to university, I found myself attending surrounded by 23,000 students. The community was infinitely more diverse, but there was still an uncomfortable dialogue. In every introduction the question “What is your ethnicity?” always floated to the surface. People would make comments like “You’re not dark enough.” and “It doesn’t count because it’s only half.”

This cycle of not considering cultural identity appears to start from an early age. Now as a young adult, I am cognoscente of the fact that I was not taught how to speak about my multi-racial identity. My experiences have made me question why more education surrounding the vast cultural landscape does not exist in public education.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada spoke on multiculturalism in children’s education stating,  “Instead of looking at multiculturalism as a whole bunch of a mainstream culture going to a school gym on a given day, and going to different booths, and sampling samosas here, and then going over to see a Berber dance over here… [and] using a school event as a metaphor… we have instead an entire school celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, or looking up their Chinese horoscopes, or talking about how to support your friends going through Ramadan.”

Personally, I would have benefited from seeing other cultures represented around me. It would  have facilitated a greater sense of belonging, but more importantly instilled a greater sense of pride in my own culture. Learning how to speak about one’s own values and traditions, and how to be respectful and supportive of others from a young age would help to alleviate cycle surrounding cultural identity. It could be argued that children will not understand the differences, but if they can perceive differences do they not deserve exposure and education to gain understanding?

Matthew Lynch, author of The Call to Teach stated, “In its most basic sense, multicultural education is a progressive approach for transforming education based on educational equality and social justice. The components required in educating a multicultural education are content integrations, prejudice reduction, empowering school culture and social culture. These all relate and all require attention as they relate to the efforts of conflict resolution in today’s world. What kids learn in their classroom environments when it comes to interactions with those who are different from them translates into how well they will manage life in the global marketplace.

In the last century, there has been an increase in global mutual acceptance of opposing views and different cultures – though arguably, there is still a long way to go. Specifically when it comes to America, it is crucial that multicultural education exist with the increasing number of students who speak a second language and come from somewhere else. Diversity exists even within mainstream society and students need to have the communication life skills that multicultural education promotes.”

The presence of multiculturalism in our society will only continue to grow. According to data projections by Nielsen in 2015, the United States’ population was comprised of a 38% multicultural population. This population is anticipated to grow by 2.3 million each year to become the majority population by 2044. Given these projections it is difficult to ignore the potential impact a lack of required education could have on future generations in the United States. If the United States does not choose to model the Canadian Government’s proactive attitude toward multicultural education, they will continue to marginalize and misrepresent an increasing portion of the population.