Sunday, May 17, 2009

Multiculturalism?

I read and reread the three articles about multiculturalism. Usually any study like this has warm and fuzzy thoughts and makes me feel like we in education are working together toward the great melting pot. Not these! In his blog, Tobia talked about reading some of these materials like he would watch a train wreck. I read these columns until I felt like I needed a bath! Tobia did present some good information and one of his points was especially eye-opening. Those of us who don’t agree with the extreme groups he talks about don’t have a guidebook or club meetings. In fact, we are so careful to protect the First Amendment rights of others that unfortunately we do nothing.

The article about what seems to be failed efforts at multiculturalism in the Netherlands would discourage me about other efforts to achieve a multicultural utopia, but their goal wasn’t the melting pot that my goal is. He describes 180 nations living in 180 different insulated pockets and children being required to learn the language of their parents’ ethnic background. (What if the parents are of different ethic backgrounds? Two languages? What if there are step-parents? Four languages?) Silly me! My goal was that we all just try to live together and get along.

The third article, the one about history books, was in its own way more troublesome to me than the others. As the author described the numerous failed attempts at a politically correct U.S. History book, I realized I apparently have no clue what a history book is supposed to teach. Some of the larger school systems in the U.S. have been jumping through proverbial hoops trying to be all things to all men when selecting a textbook for their U.S. History classes. The problem is that each ethnic group wants a book that makes them the heroes and other groups the goats. Is it so hard to present just the facts? Aren’t students supposed to research, discuss, and decide for themselves who wears the white hat, who wears the black hat, and who wears the gray one? The author of this article said that a multicultural history means America has no identity. Why does it mean that? Can’t we have a patchwork identity?

1 comment:

  1. I have many conversations with my son about the whole history book controversy. He doesn't like any of them and he teaches A.P. History. His argument is similar to yours in that he feels that primary sources which present multiple perspectives should be at the heart of teaching U.S. History. It's funny because he continues to tell me things that are incorrect and which have been taught for many years!

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