Diversity in today's classroom can easily be seen when a class of students consists of individuals who speak a dozen or more languages. Mike Rose demonstrated these differences by using the diverse ethnic groups seen in the area of downtown Los Angeles. Within a few short blocks one can travel to Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, and Skid Row. His examples of immigrants from China, Italy, and others all shared common deficiencies in literarcy. The newcomers all came to this country with poor reading, writing, and speaking skills. These individuals were often embarrassed about their lack of skills, which made them feel threatened by their teachers. Without a relationship with the dominant culture, the immigrants were ill prepared to learn classical literature since the writings seemed irrelevant and uninteresting. Teachers are increasingly challenged to make subjects comprehensible to students whose English is limited.

Since immigrants struggle with basic skills, the concepts presented in the great books are difficult to grasp and understand. This means a significant part of the curriculum is out of reach for many of these immigrants. Classical literature such as Shakespeare, Homer, and Faulkner, to name a few, have become the customary literature books used in schools. American education, in many cases, has denied our diverse population the use of these great books. Many students struggle with classical literature because it is irrelevant in their lives. Classical literature must be taught with student's diversity in mind. If a person is not from the Dominant Culture, he or she will have little or no interest in the great books described above since these books were written for and by this culture.

Motivating the diverse culture of students in today's schools requires sparking their interest. Social historian Elizabeth Ewen wrote "it is what we are excited about that educates us."(Rose, 106) Mike Rose became interested in the classics, or great books, through Jack McFarland, a high school teacher. Mr. McFarland influenced Rose through accepting him, developing a relationship with him, and being understanding. With such diversity in our schools, educators must have a basic understanding of their students' background and skill levels in order to better explain and teach the students of different backgrounds within their classrooms.

Diversity in our society is here to stay. Therefore educational systems need to find innovative ways of igniting an interest in these students. Students from the non-dominant culture who have not assimilated will be at a great disadvantage. Mr. Rose gave an example of a Chinese immigrant who struggled with English and his teacher told him his writing was poor and lacked a knowledge of words. This portrayal showed that the immigrant student was not able to write well without having an interest, nor an accepting and motivating instructor. Another Italian immigrant student became interested in the spoken language through the desire and need to communicate with his shoe shinning customers. Therefore teachings of the classics without sparking interest means that many of those of diversity will not succeed. Mike Rose's passage thoroughly explained the diversity in the classroom faced by today's college professors. He mentions that a typical classroom consists of students from a dozen or more linguistic backgrounds. College professors are confronted with the difficult task of teaching abstract concepts to students whose first language was not English. These teaching professionals have to develop alternate methods of presenting the material to create student's understanding. To be successful, the professor must include multicultural literature in the curriculum. Since individuals from varied backgrounds learn through different modalities, instructors should be aware of auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learning styles.

Adrienne Rich's essay is based on a speech made to the class of 1979 at a women's college. College teachings are predominantly rooted in the dominant culture (White Male Ideals). To be a whole woman means that her existence cannot be based solely on society's teachings. A women must know the history of the feminist, the internal workings of her own body, and the intellect of the women who came before her in order to be in control of her own destiny. This type of knowledge, according to Adrienne, can best come from institutes of learning that have student's of the same gender. Women who lack this knowledge are in her words "tokens,"(Rich, 68) or those who give up the richness of the female for that of the Male Dominated Culture.

To be truly empowered a women needs to control her own destiny by keeping in touch with herself. Being empowered means that she must act like a foreigner who is looking at something for the first time. This approach will allow her to see things from the perspective of a woman and therefore not be bound to the rules and values of the dominant culture. Feminine empowerment will be lonely in many cases, which can be seen from the past. The male dominated culture considered women who healed to be witches. The strong women were ostracized from society since they were seen as a threat.

As Mike Rose and Adrienne Rich illustrated, diversity can be seen throughout our educational systems. Those institutions that fail to meet the needs of this diverse population of students will commit suicide upon themselves. As a high school teacher, I can attest to the fact that a classroom of students no longer consists of students with common backgrounds and origins. My first period class for example includes Mexican, Chinese, African American, Caucasian, Cuban, and Asian students, to name a few. Mike Rose's point that students are ill prepared to learn the classics because the writings are irrelevant and non-interesting in their lives was right on. Since the makeup of the people of this great country is becoming more and more diverse, we, the educators of the future, must adjust our teaching style and curriculums to meet their needs. Adrienne Rich presented a good argument for same-sex colleges. Although I agree with much of the information in her essay, in my opinion we should look at creating a more culturally aware educational system instead of creating more same-sex institutes. Breaking education down into separate systems that teach to the needs of one culture over another is contra-productive. People need to learn how to subsist in both an educational system and the society we live in. To achieve the goal of teaching in today's diverse classroom, a college professor needs to help students of all cultures by utilizing teaching methods that can be directly related to the lives of his or her students. This means that varying ones educational curriculum to meet the needs of a diverse culture will have to be the norm.