Who needs a multicultural education? Some think that students do not need to have a multicultural curriculum in the classroom, while others feel that multicultural education and literature will expand and increase knowledge in our children today. Multicultural literature and diversity in the classroom setting has become a very important issue in recent years. This type of education can enhance and teach children to become cultural and diverse people. Multicultural education is the process where cultural and historical perspectives are applied in a classroom environment.
             In an article written by Dorothy Heard (1990), she explains the goals of multicultural education are to develop within students a sense of esteem for cultures. She also feels that knowledge of historical perspectives and differences in world perspective shape cultures. She feels that children who do have this type of education have the ability to successfully interact with individuals and groups with different cultural backgrounds.
             In this first article titled How do teachers identify multicultural and cross-cultural, she pays particular attention to multicultural teacher effectiveness. She feels that most teachers do not have the appropriate tools, background knowledge or the motivation to teach multicultural education in their environment. Most classroom teachers lack the very intercultural experiences and skills they are asked to instill in their students (Heard, 1990). Without any knowledge or training it is not possible for the teacher to educate her students. As stated in the article, there are only twenty-six states that have multicultural education programs in schools and only nine of those states they require multicultural education training. Having lack of training in this area of education and at this time of being does not only affect students but it also affects the teachers as well. Being unaware to certain cultures, religions or cert...