Multicultural Education Essay, Research Paper
America has long been called «The Melting Pot» due to the fact that
it is made up of a varied mix of races, cultures,
and ethnicity’s. As more and more immigrants come to America searching for a
better life, the population naturally
becomes more diverse. This has, in turn, spun a great debate over
multiculturalism. Some of the issues at stake are: who
is benefiting from education, and how to present material in a way so not to
offend a large number of people.
In the 1930’s several educators called for programs of cultural diversity
that encouraged ethnic and minority
students to study their own heritages. This is not a simple feat due to the
fact that there is a lot of diversity within individual
cultures. A look at a 1990 census shows that the American population has
changed noticeably in the last ten years, with
one out of every four Americans identifying themselves as black, Hispanic,
Asian, Pacific Islander, or American Indian
(Gould 198). The number of foreign born residents also reached an all time
high of twenty million, easily passing the 1980
record of fourteen million. Most people, from educators to philosophers,
agree that an important first step in successfully
joining multiple cultures is to develop an understanding of each others
background.
In 1980, Stanford University came up with a program – later known as the
«Stanford-style multicultural curriculum»
which aimed to familiarize students with traditions, philosophy, literature,
and history of the West. The program consisted
of 15 required books by writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Aquinas,
Marx, and Freud. By 1987, a group called the
Rainbow Coalition argued the fact that the books were all written by DWEM’s
(Dead White European Males). They felt
that this type of teaching denied students the knowledge of contributions by
people of color, women and other oppressed
groups. In 1987, the faculty voted 39 to 4 to change the curriculum and do
away with the fifteen book requirement and the
term «Western» for the study of at least one non-European culture
and proper attention to be given to the issues of race and
gender (Gould 199). This debate was very important because its publicity
provided the grounds for the argument that
America is a racist society and to study only one culture would not
accurately portray what really makes up this country.
Defenders of multicultural education argue that it offers students a balanced
appreciation and critique of other
cultures as well as our own (Stotsky 64). While it is common sense that one
could not have a true understanding of a
subject by only possessing knowledge of one side of it, this brings up the
fact that there would never be enough time in the
current school year to equally cover the contributions of each individual
nationality. This leaves teachers with two options.
The first would be to lengthen the school year, which is highly unlikely
because of the political aspects of the situation. The
other choice is to modify the curriculum to only include what the instructor
(or school) feels are the most important
contributions, which again leaves them open to criticism from groups that
feel they are not being equally treated. A national
standard is out of the question because of the fact that different parts of
the country contain certain concentrations of
nationalities. An example of this is the high concentration of Cubans in
Florida or Latinos in the west. Neverless, teachers
are at the top of the agenda when it comes to multiculturalism. They can do
the most for children during the early years of
learning, when kids are most impressionable. By engaging students in
activities that follow the lines of their multicultural
curriculum, they can open up young minds while making learning fun (Pyszkowski
154).
Students are not the only ones who can benefit from this type of learning.
Teachers certainly will pick up on
educational aspects from other countries. If, for instance, a teacher has a
minority student from a different country in their
classroom every year, the teacher can develop a well rounded teaching style
that would in turn benefit all of the class.
Teachers can also keep on top of things by regularly attending workshops and
getting parents involved so they can
reinforce what is being taught in the classroom at the child’s home.
While generally opposed to the idea, Francis Ryan points out that
«Multicultural education programs indeed may be
helpful for all students in developing perspective-taking skills and an
appreciation for how ethnic and minority traditions
have evolved and changed as each came into contact with other groups»
(Ryan 137). It would certainly give people a
sense of ethnic pride to know how their forefathers contributed to the
building of the American society that we live in today.
It is also a great feeling to know that the nation can change what is felt to
be wrong, in order to build a better system for our
children. Minorities would benefit from learning the evolution of their
culture and realizing that the ups and downs along the
way do not necessarily mean that their particular lifestyle is in danger of
extinction.
Some opponents feels that the idea of multiculturalism will, instead of
uniting cultures, actually divide them. They
feel that Americans should try and think of themselves as a whole rather than
people from different places all living together.
They go even further to say that is actually goes against our democratic
tradition, the cornerstone of American society
(Stotsky 64).
In Paul Gannon’s article «Balancing Multicultural and Civic Education
Will Take More Than Social Stew», he brings
up an interesting point that «Education in the origins, evolution,
advances and defeats of democracy must, by its nature, be
heavily Western and also demand great attention to political history (Gannon
8). Since both modern democracy and its
alternatives are derived mostly from European past, and since most of
participants were white males who are now dead,
the choices are naturally limited. If we try to avoid these truths or
sidestep them in any way, we cannot honestly say we are
giving an accurate description of our history. Robert Hassinger agrees with
Gannon and adds that we cannot ignore the
contributions of DWEM’s for the simple fact that they are just that. He
thinks that we should study such things as the rise
of capitalism or ongoing nationalism in other countries, but should not be
swayed in our critical thinking by the fact the some
people will not feel equally treated or even disrespected (Hassinger 11).
There certainly must be reasons why many
influential people in our history have been DWEM’s, and we should explore
these reasons without using race and sex alone
as reasons for excluding them from our curriculum. When conflicts arise with
the way we do things, we should explore why
rather than compromise in order to protect a certain group’s feelings.
Francis Ryan warns that trying to push the subject of multiculturalism too
far would actually be a hindrance it
interferes with a student’s participation in other groups, or worse yet,
holds the child back from expressing his or her own
individuality. He gives a first hand example of one of his African-American
students who was afraid to publicly admit his
dislike for rap music because he felt ethnically obligated as part of his
black heritage (Ryan 137). While a teacher can be a
great help in providing information about other cultures, by the same note,
that information can be just has harmful if it is
incomplete. In order for students to be in control of their own identity,
they must have some idea of how other look at
these same qualities. Children must be taught to resolve inner-conflicts
about their identity, so that these features that make
us unique will be brought out in the open where they can be enjoyed by all
instead of being hidden in fear of facing rejection
from their peers (Ryan 136). Teachers need to spend an equal amount of time
developing each students individuality so
that they don’t end up feeling obligated to their racial group more than they
feel necessary to express the diversity that
makes America unique.
Most immigrant come to America for a better way of life, willing to leave
behind the values of their mother
countries. Instead of trying to move the country that they came from into
America, immigrants need to be willing to accept
the fact that America is shared by all who live here, and it is impossible to
give every citizen an equal amount of attention. If
we are not willing to forget some parts of our heritage in favor of a set of
well rounded values, then a fully integrated
America will never be possible.
There certainly is no easy answer to the problem of multicultural education.
Proponents will continue to argue the
benefits that unfortunately seem to be too far out of reach for our imperfect
society. The hard truth is that it is impossible
for our public school system to fairly cater to the hundreds of nationalities
that already exist, let alone the hundreds more
that are projected to arrive during the next century. In order for us to live
together in the same society, ewe must sometime
be willing to overlook parts of our distant past in exchange for a new hope
in the future. Our only chance is to continue to
debate the issue in order to hope for a „middle of the road“
compromise. One particularly interesting solution is that we
could study the basics of how America came about in the most non-biased way
possible, not concentrating on the race and
sex of our forefathers as much as what they made happen, at least during the
elementary and high school years. This would
leave the study of individual nationalities, which are themselves major
contributing factors, for people to do at home or
further down the line in their education, where they can focus on tradition
and beliefs to any extent the want without fear of
anyone feeling segregated.
In order for us to function as a whole, we need to start thinking of America
in terms of a whole. With just a basic
understanding of other cultures, and most importantly, the tools and
background to think critically and make our own
decisions not based on color, sex, religion, or national origin, but on
information that we were able to accurately attain
through the critical thinking skills we were taught in school, we would be
better equipped to work at achieving harmony in a
racially varied country.
Gannon, Paul. „Balancing Multicultural and Civic Education Will Take
More Than “Social Stew»." The Education Digest Dec. 1991:
7-9.
Gould, Ketayun H. «The Misconstruing of Multiculturalism: The
Stanford Debate and Social Work» Social Work Mar. 1995: 198-204.
Hassinger, Robert. «True Multiculturalism.» Commonwealth 10 April
1992:
10-11.
Pyszkowski, Irene S. «Multiculturalism – Education For The Nineties;
An Overview.» Education Vol. 114 No. 1: 151-157.
Ryan, Francis J. «The Perils of Multiculturalism: Schooling for the
Group.» Educational Horizons 7 Spring 1993: 134-8.
Stotsky, Sandra. «Academic vs. Ideological Education in the
Classroom.» The Education Digest Mar. 1992: 64-6.