Assimilating schools work to provide a curriculum that is designed to give all students a similar experience. This common experience avoids the obvious exclusion of any group from the same educational opportunities offered any other student. The problem with this approach is that these schools do not account for the diversity of needs, experiences and backgrounds of the students they are trying to serve. When schools become institutions that focus more on the content they provide rather than actual student learning, the result is usually an exclusionary system with little to no opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with the expectations and traditions of the dominant culture, and the ability of studnets to meet these norms is then communicated to parents, other schools, and future employers through grades that ultimately represnt a student’s level of compliance and integration into that culture.
A curriculum that focuses entirely on the teaching of common texts for all students actually works to exclude people that do not understand or identify with that particular text and leave the responsibility of learning more up to the student than the teacher or school. Inclusive schools must work to differentiate their curricula to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Although books such as Romeo and Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby have great literary merit, we must ask ourselves if they are truly good books for all of our students. By setting targets and goals that are based on student learning rather than cultural and behavioral standards, the teacher is no longer obligated to teach merely information. The inclusive classroom is designed to help all students apply information to a variety of situations. Assimilating schools fail to recognize the value of diversity in helping students and teachers to all learn from one another as members of a learning community.
