The Value of Multicultural Education in America

an important first step in successfully joining multiple cultures is to develop an understanding of each other’s background. By exposing children to the ideas and customs of other cultures, they can better understand and appreciate the differences that coexist in our society. "If we teach children to identify only with members of their own race or ethnic culture, we run the risk of promoting and sanctioning ethnocentrism and prejudice (Ravitch 10)." Through multicultural education, America’s youth are exposed to the ethnic diversity of our society and are taught tolerance, a respect for differing opinions, and the cooperation of working towards a common goal. Multicultural education is an idea which first took seed in the 1960’s, germinated during the following two decades, and came to fruition in the 1990’s. It is a means to becoming a tolerant society; a place where people having a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds can live harmoniously. Multicultural education addresses how the contributions of these different groups have enriched our society. A society where "our common culture is multicultural (Ravitch 10)." One of the strengths of multicultural education is learning about other cultures in order to gain a broader understanding of the world. It promotes positive change for persons of all cultures. It involves not only teaching the majority group about minorities, but also teaching minority groups about the majority. The Western Traditionalist view of America as a "melting pot" is based on the historical influx of immigrants attempting to escape poverty, religious persecution, and oppression, in search of economic opportunities, personal freedom, and a better quality of life. People of differing cultural and ethnic backgrounds sought this land of opportunity with the hope of becoming an American. "The point of America was not to preserve old cultures, but to forge a new, American culture (Schlesinger 21)." The majority of Americans are from white European descent, and the foundations of our nation were based on Western culture. Civics, a curricular area taught from elementary school to high school, strives to teach the American ideals of freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and the duties and obligations of its citizens. These ideals are not based on non-Western cultures, and therefore are not expected to be adapted to address minority groups. Proponents of the Western Traditionalist ideology oppose multicultural education claiming that it will, instead of uniting cultures, actually divide them. A presumably united nation may become fragmented if each subculture is not assimilated into the common culture. They also believe that it contradicts democratic tradition, the cornerstone of American society. "The genius of America lies in its capacity to forge a single nation from peoples of remarkably diverse racial, religious, and ethnic origins. It has done so because democratic principles provide both the philosophical bonds of union and practical experience in civic participation. The American Creed envisages a nation composed of individuals making their own choices and accountable to themselves, not a nation based on inviolable ethnic communities (Schlesinger 134)." People are free to live as they please, keeping their ethnic heritage intact, with the understanding that their subculture is subordinate to the common culture of America, a nation founded upon Western cultural ideals. These foundations of our nation, the ideals that compel people from the corners of the globe to immigrate here, unify its citizens into Americans. Multicultural education does not disregard the idea of a common culture. However, multiculturalism, often confused with multicultural education, does. "Multiculturalism encourages immigrants and other minorities to retain their foreign cultures by not assimilating into the Euro-American culture (Schmidt 3)." All cultures are presumed to be equally worthy of study and respect. No one culture is considered to be superior or inferior to another. Multiculturalism denies Western cultural superiority, which challenges the Western Traditionalist view. Multicultural education recognizes that American culture is a mixture of diverse ethnic groups, but these diversities are subordinate to America’s majority culture rather than equal to it. Through multicultural education, students become aware of ethnic groups and how they are similar and different from each other. "Cultural differences enrich rather than diminish our society (Hanley 1)." Therefore, multicultural education is a necessary component of the public school curriculum. Its objectives include teaching commonalties of all people through understanding their social and cultural differences, using instructional methods that value cultural knowledge and differences, and the teaching of tolerance, as students become agents of social change. "In a democratic, multicultural society all children must be educated about the multiple strands of the past that have created the webs of the present. For example, African American students must learn about Asian Americans and Latino Americans, all of whom need to understand the journey of Native Americans, and vice versa (Hanley 3)." When students learn about different ethnic groups, it leads to an understanding of the commonality of people. It is the similarities of people, regardless of their ethnicity, that leads to a sense of humanity and a common culture. "It is the role of the public school to open the children’s minds to new worlds, new ideas, new possibilities (Ravitch 8)." It is imperative that educators teaching children from different cultures, specifically non-Western ones, be sensitive to the cultural differences that may inhibit learning in order to effectively teach these children. Teachers must delve beneath the surface of cultural traits in order to understand the social realities and pressures that influence the child’s ability to acquire and understand new information. Acquiring knowledge includes acquiring a set of cultural norms, which may vary substantially from the child’s native culture. "Each child’s culture forms the template through which he or she perceives the world, and the second culture is naturally filtered through the first (Meyer 17)." Contact between cultures may result in misunderstandings because of differing perceptions, behaviors, customs, and ideas. Educators must be encouraged to use multicultural education as a vehicle to bridge the differences between the foreign and American cultures. Multicultural education can also be a vehicle in which to teach tolerance. Exposure to different cultures fosters an appreciation for the differences and similarities between ethnic groups. Teaching about the differences and similarities between cultures does not divide our nation, but rather encourages a sense of commonality, which helps to alleviate misunderstandings often leading to racial conflicts. Through the public school system and the multicultural education movement, a step has been taken to actively change our society, which is running rampant with racism and discrimination. Students learn acceptance and tolerance, and are empowered as agents of social change. Knowledge alone is not enough to shape a society. The members themselves have to be willing to put forth the time and effort to right the wrongs and create the changes in an evolving society. Multicultural education has emerged to address the educational needs of a society that continues to struggle with the realization that it is not monocultural, but is a melange of many cultures. "Diversity need not lead to separateness. But the failure to develop intergroup understanding through constructive multicultural education virtually guarantees the societal division based on ignorance. Therefore, all elementary schools should expose their students to a broad range of our nation’s racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity (Handley 4)." An ethnically diverse nation, such as ours, is enriched through its variegated members and their unique heritages. We should applaud the differences among ourselves, honor the contributions of all our citizens, and celebrate the commonalties that unite us into one culture, America.