Multicultural Education Essay Example For Students

Multicultural Education Essay : 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 ethnicitys. As more and more immigrants come to America searching for a better life, the population naturally becomes more diverse. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- * Copyright DueNow.com Inc. * Category: Social Issues Paper Title: Multicultural Education Essay Text: 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 ethnicitys. 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 1930s 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 DWEMs (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). Fahrenheit 451 (770 words) Essay 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 childs home. While generally opposed to the idea, .