When it comes to multiculturalism and its importance, I, myself, am an open book. I believe that we are all one race. With many creeds and drives and reasons for what we do, and we will never all agree on anything, but that doesn't mean that anyone should be discouraged from what they believe so long as it isn't hurting anyone else. And I hope, one day, that the world will be able to live peacefully.
To that end, what we need in school is empathy. Empathy, defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another," is not a uniquely human trait... in fact, humans can be quite bad at it, when they don't want to be. This is why this is something that has to be taught in school, and Language Arts, with a little help from History and the other humanities, is the perfect place to learn empathy.
Language Arts, or English, or whatever you want to call it, is the study of stories and, in its more basic form, language. One could argue that language's ENTIRE purpose is to make it possible for people to share stories, experiences, and the world around you. Without language, no two humans would be able to understand anything about each other other than their looks and actions. With language, we have meaning to those actions: why, how, who, what? We can find out the purpose of people, what they perceive differently than us, what they fear and what drives them. Through Language Arts, or just he Arts in general, we gain a window into other people, other worlds, other possibilities, whether its through reading their memoirs or stories written to capture a time period. The humanities are just that: how we become human. Or, rather, how we connect to the rest of humanity.
Every culture has story tellers. Every culture, every religion, every tribe or modern nation, has similar stories. Creation myths, fables, fairy tales... and, if nothing else, they can always spin a yarn about a friend or family member's event, laughing about the memory as though it was happening now, and getting complete strangers to gasp and laugh and enjoy the thrill ride with them. Language Arts (and theater... and art... and history) are all windows into each other's souls: places where any person, through just some words on a page or sentences spoken aloud, can be transported from their own little corner of the world to anywhere else, become anyONE else, and experience it all firsthand in their imagination.
With these windows to the entire world, even into worlds that may never be, available to us, it is important to include them all in our curriculum. We can have anyone, from any background, experience the trials, struggles, and triumphs of anyone else. We can humanize people deemed "The Enemy" by politicians, give reason and understanding where there was only confusion and fear. And, yes, this can be used for ill, as some may see another's struggles and be turned to a way of thinking that isn't good, in the long run, for everyone, but... It is always, ALWAYS, better to light a flame than curse the darkness. It is better to know and understand all you can before you act, and make decisions based on reason rather than fear. And maybe, through providing windows into these other worlds, we can convince students to do their own looking, expanding their horizons to places and thoughts they never would have considered, inspiring them to do good in their own way out in the world.
As for how to do these lessons in the class... that's simple. Pick a variety of stories to base your lessons on. Yes, it will involve a lot of reading, but that is kind of the point of Language Arts. If done right, the students will be absorbing knowledge of many different ideologies without even noticing, and be learning the lessons presented all the while. You'll know a student is on the right track when they can question a story from another perspective. When they ask "Why did that character do that?" on their own, genuinely curious as to their motives and eager to finish the story to know if a person completely unlike them makes it to the end safely. Or if you can ask them why a character did something and they can answer not just with the facts that lead up to it, but the thoughts the character might have had... that is when you know they've opened their mind to other cultures.
Also, in Hawaii, with the amount of cultures always blended together, it's rare to see anyone completely against multiculturalism. But if you can get the "local" (read: darker skinned people, not necessarily of Hawaiian ancestry. Local, in this context, began with Hawaiian, but it often expands to include Filipino, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Micronesian, Chinese, and anyone who isn't obviously white) students and the "haole" (read: lighter skinned people, not necessarily of non-Hawaiian origin, but pretty much used on anyone who looks white) students to hang out outside of class, you've definitely accomplished your goal of cultural competence.
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