Karen Paine - Monocultural but Moving in a Multicultural Direction

After taking the Assessment of My Life Experiences Directions, I was a bit disappointed that I was not officially "Wholly Multicultural." However, with reflection upon the course of my life, I do believe that "Monocultural, but moving in a multicultural Direction" is an accurate assessment. The scale seems to be structured chronologically, beginning with prompts such as family of origin and neighborhood as a child, and ending with prompts such current friendships and neighborhood where I live. What I find encouraging is that the numbers I ascribed to the prompts also increased chronologically. For example, for family of origin and neighborhood as a child, I ranked on the scale as 1 or 2 (heavily monocultural). Respectively, for current friendships and neighborhood where I live, I ranked on the scale as 7 or 8 (near wholly multicultural). I attribute the higher score to a purposeful endeavor to enrich my life with multicultural experiences and to deepen my education by interacting with various people and cultures. Throughout my life, it seems America has become increasingly multicultural, however, without the conscious effort to make my life multicultural, I do not believe it automatically would have become so.


-Karen Paine