In the United States, 'multicultural' is a concept that carries both positive and negative connotations. Some use it to 'separate' individuals and others to 'reconcile' differences. Similarly, educational institutions either embrace and build upon the multicultural reality of our students or deny its relevance and try to hammer down the opportunities it presents into a pile of inconvenient splinters. We must be vigilant to ensure that the classroom setting does not "set group against group … [or] … hinder the educational excellence and fairness [that multiculturalism] was conceived to enhance." (Hirsch, 1992). Enright (2003) asserts that "Education does not 'polish off' a society ... but rather is the fundamental pillar of the structure that helps to makes society civilised in the first place." The public education system will continue to influence future generations of Americans, so multiculturalism is a paradigm worth reviewing.
As a Special Education Teacher Assistant at an elementary school in Middle Tennessee, I can appreciate how perceptions on 'multiculturalism' trickle down from the state education departments, through district school boards, onto school administration desks and finally to the teacher, who has a direct impact on the opinions that a student will form, both consciously and subconsciously. Social control at its best. According to Spring (1984), the education boards who determine the values and priorities that are set in motion across school communities, are usually composed and controlled by 'local elite business groups' who mainly pursue their own economic interests.
Schools have always been a breeding project, and the powerful have always decided who gets what, when and how. The earlier immigrants, white-race communities of European-culture descent, first granted education only to those males who had claims on 'real estate property inheritances'. (Economic resources translate into power and rights. Duh!) Later, after much struggle and sacrifice others acquired the right to learn in a formal educational setting: poor white men, then white females, and finally minorities. Would the powerful and rich hand over the privilege of education out of the goodness of their hearts? Definitely not! According to Ross (1922), free public education is “an economical system of police.” So, educating 'the poor fellow' had a purpose: “The molding of his will by social suggestion, the shaping of his ideas by education, the enlightment of his judgement, the setting up of shining goals and black scarecrows in the field of life to influence his choices." Ross (1922). A mechanism of social control paid precisely by those that are controlled by it!
Back in the classroom, the interest that the teacher invests in the subject, the instruction methodology, and the depth of the content itself, all feed into the general acceptance or rejection of 'multiculturalism', or any other topic for that matter. At the school where I work, I have seen descendants of the 'earlier immigrants' proudly celebrate their European background (and they should!) while children from minority cultures seem, in general, to be embarrassed by their heritage. WHY? It has to do with their perception of where their value as individuals lies. They have based their self-esteem on outside factors - factors that they do not control. Subjected to stereotypes and discrimination, as children they are victims. Society tells them that their faith, their values, their strengths, their intelligence, their feelings are not enough to grant them membership into the American society.
The good news is that it never meant to be personal. It is not something new nor is it only happening in our country. ''This is not just about the immigrants. It's about human and civil rights, it's about all marginalized, under-privileged people in the United States.'' (Kyriakou, 2006).
Moreover, this has nothing to do with national identity, either. We all have an individual story and then a common story. Both are important. The thirst for power is what fuels the use of a school system to feed perceptions, to predetermine skills and knowledge that guarantee the success of an economic model, to perpetuate one race over others. To what lengths will people go to retain what they feel belongs to them? History has taught us that they will do even very terrible things.
In 1849, the American Academic Herman Melville said about this nation: "Settled by the people of all nations, all nations may claim her for their own." Furthermore, "it is a universal historical fact that every ethnic culture existing today is an assimilated product of earlier cultural imperialisms." (Hirsch, 1992). Why the more recent anti-immigrant sentiment? The WHIM and DESIRE of the powerful leaders of policy formulation and the trite insecurities common to their followers - insecurities that turn into selfishness, disguised as the more intellectual sentiment of 'prejudice', which in turn is supposed to justify the displays of pure meanness and lack of decency.
This is my bias - tainted by the eye of the beholder syndrome. In our society, there is a bias too - it lies in the heart and will of the powerful policymaker who seeks to control society by nullifying the common man's spirit and intellect.
References
Enright, Olwyn. (2003). The Role of Education in a Civilised Society. Retrieved on June 23, 2010 from http://www.finegael.ie/PubUploads/ACFCBF.htm
Hirsch, E. D., Jr. (1992). Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School. Core Knowledge Foundation. Retrieved on June 23, 2010, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED362284&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED362284
Kyriakou, Niko. (2006, March 29). Organizers see 'New Civil Rights Movement' in Immigration Protest. Retrieved on June 23, 2010, from the CommonDreams.org Web site: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0329-03.htm
Ross, Edward A. (1922). Social Control: A Survey of the Foundations of Order. New York: The Macmillan Company. Retrieved on June 23, 2010, from the Google Books Web site: http://books.google.com/books?id=HhndAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=social+control&source=bl&ots=C5VKhRbA8e&sig=VgxVMTv4mThARnu8zGHjxk11od4&hl=en&ei=jWIiTPWANcP-8AahuIiBBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=education&f=false
Spring, Joel. (1984). The Structure of Power in an Urban School System: A Study of Cincinnati School Politics. Curriculum Inquiry, 14(4), 401-424. Retrieved on June 22, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3202264
StateUniversity.com (n.d.). Social Organization of Schools - American Public Schools in Context, The Purposes of Schooling, Defining Organizations and Bureaucracies. Posted on June 23, 2020, to http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2430/Social-Organization-Schools.html
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