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EDMU 205 Sec. 2: Cultural Autobiography of Rudi Schwerdle

In the 21st century, our lives are surrounded by an innumerable amount of diverse situations

and people. We have grown to be more accepting and welcoming of the differences that we have

with one another. There have been pockets of people who have switched the dynamic from a

time when heinous stereotypes and expletives were the norm to a place where people step up for

one another as human beings. I feel very privileged to have been exposed to more of the good

side of diversity rather than the lingering racism that many in my EDMU 205 class have

experienced. Albeit, through EDMU 205, I have learned the complex nature of multicultural

education and its significance not only in our field, but to the complexity of our society. The

purpose of multicultural education is to develop connections with people through their

differences appreciating and respecting their strengths and weaknesses.

I firmly believe that my cultural background is a major factor in my understanding of

multiculturalism and diversity. I am originally from Illinois currently living in Plainfield with my

mother, father and my sister solidly middle class. I am primarily of German decent with Irish,

English and French as well. My fathers side is one hundred percent German and I have been

lucky to travel to Germany on four occasions to visit family. The first trip was when I was 2

years old and although I do not remember anything of the trip, my recent trip during Christmas

2015 helped develop a greater understanding of my background. Among many things, I found

out that my grandmothers cousin whose parents immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, is

a relatively known orchestral conductor and music educator George Trautwein, the traditions that

my family has during Christmas and New Years, and that my mothers side also had some

German heritage among Irish. I take immense pride in my German heritage for reasons including

the love my father has, but more importantly, because I am named after my native German
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grandfather who passed away before I was born. Additionally, I was raised Catholic by my

mother even though my dad is Lutheran. This has also impacted my understanding of diversity

since both my parents have greatly impacted my concept of faith and religion. Having

Christianity within my life is important to me as instilled by my mother, but the ability to have a

relationship with God outside of the church is what my dad helped me understand. Furthermore,

I grew up in a very progressive household that allowed the individual natures of each of my

family members grow. Both my parents were not be able to voice their opinions with their

respective parents growing up and they both felt it hindered them when they got older. For me

and my sister, they wanted us to ask questions and engage in conversation over topics that I

know many would not dare speak with their parents. That is a major priority I hold to this day

and is the main reason I find myself leading the dialogue within classes or having the most to say

regularly.

The foundations of my background have definitely allowed for a significant amount of

exposure to different ethnicities growing up compared to most. On my mothers side, I have a

cousin who was adopted from South Korea, two who are biracial (one Puerto Rican, one

Dominican), one who is Puerto Rican and even one who was conceived through artificial

insemination. As children, we are not really cognizant of the differences we have growing up and

especially within our families. Naturally, I did not recognize that my cousins were different than

me until race and ethnicity was brought up in school. Even to this day they are still my cousins

and only when I purposefully think about it, do I recognize these differences. Later in life I

realized how significant it was that with a large Catholic family like my moms to have spouses

and children who were not white themselves and how open and accepting they are of one

another. In class, we have discussed that this dynamic only recently has become more prevalent
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and that more often than not, ostracizing has occurred within families because of their

differences. Outside of my family, many of my friends have heritages from all over the world.

Throughout my early education, my closest friends were Korean, Filipino, and Hispanic. I am

sure that based on my cousins this was the reason I never really thought about it until I started

looking back. Even so, there were more times I recognized the obvious differences between us,

because I saw them as peers and not family members.

My education has also been a great impact in my development of multiculturalism. I attended

the Plainfield District 202 from 2nd grade through graduation of high school. It has been

constantly developing since I moved there since the population has increased tenfold since 1990.

The nice part about my district and my high school Plainfield North was that it did not pull from

one sole socioeconomic class. Plainfield North was by far the richest pulling school in the district

since it was close to Naperville, IL, but we still had people like myself who were considered

lower middle class. More often than not, I faced scenarios where the wealth of other students

impacted what I could accomplish in my high school. My familys consistently fluctuating

income made constant trips, events, AP tests, and educational opportunities seldom available to

me because of their costs. EDMU 205 has really helped me be comfortable with what I did not

have in my education since I am aware of students not having a textbooks written in the last 10

years, not having pencils and paper or having a different teacher every 3 weeks. I am grateful

that even though I could not do everything as the rest of my fellow students could, that I will still

able to make the most of what I had and had the same excellent teachers as everyone else. I have

learned that so many do not have these basic fundamentals and have caused their education to

suffer way more than mine ever did.

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My understanding of the hardships others faced with education helped when I moved past

high school and into college. However, I still faced roadblocks that challenge so many to get

over the hurdle of higher education. Neither of my parents finished college and neither of them

had anything of particular accomplishment while they were at either of their respective schools.

Trying to get their advice on how to apply, what universities are looking for or what career path I

should take never happened. The only way that I could have gone to college was my mom

getting a job at a university and giving us free tuition. I was lucky enough for that to happen, but

the removal of music education at this school and a general lack of funds at the school, only

made it temporary. I am very fortunate that my parents instilled the necessity of doing well in

school which allowed me to transfer and receive a small scholarship at Ball State. I am also

grateful that they were comfortable with whatever decision I make and know that I alone have

full control over my future. Even with all the chaos it took to get where I am today, I still

consistently see people drop out, fail out or get kicked out of college, yet having it all paid for

them. I realized very quickly I had to make every day worth the sacrifice that my mom made by

taking a low paying job so that we had the chance to learn more than my parents did.

Recently I have learned more about diversity through teaching. Currently, I am the Fraternal

Education Officer for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Ball State. The job description is to teach new

probationary members and brothers within our chapter about this music fraternity and develop

the understanding of our ideals. We recently had a probationary member that was from China and

that struggled with English. It was very difficult to communicate with him and find common

ground outside of our shared interest in music. Unfortunately, he was not able to enter our

chapter which made me feel like I failed to help him through the process. In my short time in the

position, I could not be more disappointed in myself for not knowing what to do and feeling lost
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when it came to helping him. More often than not, I try to perfect and expand my knowledge in

all areas to make sure I am as prepared as possible. When I do not succeed, I feel remorse and

anxiety over what I can do to change that in the future. It was not until a recent professional

development meeting with a current middle school choir director that I was comfortable with not

being able to win them all. With multiculturalism, I am learning that the battle is so huge to

command and conquer every corner that you cannot be an expert on everything. The director had

mentioned how important it was to check in with all your students to make sure they are doing

alright and answer any questions they have. Albeit, sometimes those students are against you,

disinterested or outside of your ability. When you have been able to move past those scenarios,

you can you learn to reach out to those in the future. With that in mind, I began to accept not

being prepared to help him. Knowing I cannot do it all is a powerful lesson that benefits my

teaching and my own well-being.

When I look to EDMU 205 specifically for multicultural education, my experience with the

Ross Community Center, whose goal is to help has a large impact. It is hard to describe just how

influential this experience has been for me since I have not completed my time there, but I know

for certain, it has given me a new view that I did not have previously. The exposure to young

kids who have extreme turmoil already is hard to stomach before stepping foot into the center. I

am fortunate that I went in with an open mind, but I understand fully the fear of not knowing

what to expect that was voiced by my peers. It was when I looked past that and saw 6-10

children who needed some attention and help in their daily lives that I was able to help them to

the best of my ability. I found it unbelievably rewarding to accomplish even little tasks that

potentially help the kids grow and enjoy these pivotal years. One moment in particular will
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forever stand out for me as something that I feel proud of doing, but also amazed by the strength

of the kids.

After the usual infighting between two kids got more heated than normal, I pulled the young

boy, Landon, away from a young girl. He ran off into another room while I cleaned the mess they

had made. I found him sitting on a chair looking quite dejected playing with a bead bracelet that

had been broken in the fight. I asked him if he was okay and of course he responded with yes

even though he was clearly upset. I offered to find the pieces for him so that he could maybe put

it back together. He said he would very much like that. I then asked him how he was feeling

about what had happened and he said he was mad at the young girl for calling him names and

being mean to him. He wanted to punch and hurt her for persistent teasing. I knelt down next to

him and explained how he should not punch others for nagging him and saying mean things. I

offered my suggestion to not say anything back when someone is antagonizing you repeatedly.

The hope was that if he said nothing back there was a chance they would grow disinterested and

stop picking on him. It seemed like a novel concept to him, however, he seemed to play along

with the idea. Up until this point, I had not expected to get the reaction I did when I asked him to

ignore her attacks and try to enjoy a game of Uno with another kid. He did exactly what I told

him even when the young girl repeatedly came over to kick him. Besides immense pride for

Landons composure, I felt the weight of the situation lay heavily on myself. There was

something so deeply saddening about seeing someone who has a broken home, lack of structure,

addiction within the family, poverty and probably a number of other factors be able to keep their

composure with something as trivial as young kids bickering. To him, he perceives the attitude

and interactions with his peers as more significant than any of those listed above. His innate

resilience to deal with these situations is something that I wish I could maintain at 21 years old.
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This was also my first experience teaching a skill that could help this boy at any point in his life.

It is heart-warming to see a young child achieving something much greater than regurgitating

facts on a test. I knew that these were the moments that we live for as natural-born teachers, but

it was not until that day that I saw something exceed my expectations.

My current life experiences have made me confident that I will have few problems with

diversity in my classroom. I am sure that I will be thrust into interesting scenarios where race,

sexuality or beliefs will be a point of contention, but I believe that EDMU 205 has prepared me

greatly for those moments. I have to thank my parents once again for creating an environment

that promoted respect and tolerance for the differences in others no matter what they are. I think

that without the persistency of this idea within me and my sister, allows me to look back proudly

of the decisions I made and the people I would call friends. Furthermore, I have greatly

appreciated the ability to share my own personal thoughts and ideas on multicultural education as

well as listening to others within my class. Not only has it reaffirmed my beliefs, but it has given

me a stronger grasp of what diversity is. There is still so much for me to learn about multicultural

education and I am sure I will make mistakes out in the field, but I am certain that my perception

of these issues has improved tremendously because of this course. I cannot thank Dr. Michael

Ndemanu and future Dr. Camea Davis for opening my eyes to the importance of multicultural

education. Our life-long goal as teachers is to make the world a more accepting place for our

students and our life-long job is to teach those students how to make that impact themselves. I

am humbled and privileged that Ball State University is where I will develop my strong

aspirations for music and the institution will strengthen my insatiable need to teach.