Multiculturalism and Social control

Immigration has been a major issue America has been facing for decades. The amount of immigrants has continued to rise despite the various cautions the government has implemented. Since immigration has increased the amount of immigrant children attending public schools has increased creating a rise in diversity in schools.  Because of the diversity of the students the curriculum in history has taken on a different approach and has caused some sort of social control.

Teachers are now placed in a situation to where they have to twist the curriculum or the way they teach history in their class. Since history involves various cultures and ethnicity it has to be taught in a way that students are allowed to form their own opinion of the historical events and at the same time develop an understanding of the material. In the article Multiculturalism in School Curriculum a teacher speaks on the various approaches that she uses to teach her students history. In particular, “when teaching the Progressive Era (part of the traditional curriculum), my students work in pairs to write and present an interview on one person from the time period. I provide students with information from a variety of perspectives and from a variety of races and genders. The students are allowed to form their own opinions and arguments. My job is simply to provide them with the information and be objective.” I appreciate this approach because it doesn’t isolate immigrant students. It offers the opportunity for students to become acquainted with each other and learn all at once.

To some extent schools are used as a means for social control. Although some teachers may argue that they are unbiased when it comes to teaching, in most cases they allow their perspectives to slip through the cracks.  Everyone in every form wants to have control. The school system is the best environment to exercise such a control. I believe that the way the curriculum in set up is to allow the smart students to excel and the not so smart kids in the same spot. The standardized tests that are required to determine whether a student moves on to the next level or stay behind is a controlling spectrum. Teachers are required to teach the necessary subjects on these tests at a certain pace. Not every student can comprehend a specific topic in the same pace or manner as the next student. So many students are left in the dark because the teacher is required to teach a certain amount of material in a certain time frame.  This develops a social structure to where the smart stays on top and the students that are need of more attention and time are left behind.  

Schools are now designed in a way that students are placed in classes determined by their level of intellect. In the book Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Gatto, he states “students were sharply divided from one another in rigid class divisions justified by standardized testing. Separation into winner and losers became the ruling dynamic. (p.200)” This separation is also a controlling spectrum. Immigrant students that have English as their second language suffer the most because they have to learn the language and then be able to comprehend the material. If those students are not strongly willed to exceed they will not progress in their education, this is not because teachers do not care, but because the way the system is set up to control every aspect of student learning and teacher teachings. I have witnessed this growing up in the public school system. We were separated to the extent of the bilingual students were in a completely separate class. To some extent I can understand the need for the separation which allowed them to learn at a pace and language that was beneficial to them, but then again it isolated them from other students that could have helped their transition. A medium needs to be established so that all students (citizen or immigrant) all receive an equal level of educational understanding and no child is truly left behind.

References:

Gatto, J. (2009). Weapons of Mass Instruction. New Society Publishers

Waxler, A (2008). Multiculturalism in school curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.teaching-tips-machine.com/multicultural_education.htm

Multiculturalism

           Multiculturalism is defines as the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level (2011). It is amazing to see how many different views there are on the topic of multiculturalism. Some people believe that a multicultural society shouldn’t exist; some think that studying and teaching multiculturalism is unnecessary and others believe that acknowledging that multiculturalism exist means changing history.

          In an article by Samuel Taylor, he wrote about the changes multiculturalism plays in the school’s history department.  He states that history is simply a point of view illustrated by various story tellers. I can visualize how history can be a point of view because there are always two or more sides to a story and then there are the facts. History is taught from a certain person or person’s perspective. The article stated that the degree of importance of certain historical events will differ amongst the races. What is important to one race may not be relevant to the next. For example, slavery is relevant to blacks but it holds no significance to the whites because their lives would have little if any, historical changes if slavery didn’t exist. It also states how teaching multicultural history is a major challenge. Because American history not only involves America and Americans, but it also includes the history of other races, nationalities and cultures this makes teaching history a challenge. It opens the door to uncertainties on which point of view should be favored without causing confusing or tension amongst students. In teaching history not every perspective can be taught. It was stated in the article that numerous varieties of history textbooks have been published to accommodate a particular culture in a particular school or district. The schools that are highly populated with blacks would have history textbooks that cater more to black American history, and so forth. I think that all students need to learn about all cultures history because to some degree we are all connected through our roots and each of our races and cultures have come into contact and has inspired one another on some type of level at one point in time in history, rather that encounter was pleasant or not there is still a message or lesson to be learned.

            It is not a surprise to me that the white nation still wants America to be considered ‘White America.’ I am not even surprised by the extremes in which these nationalist go through to get rid of other races. According to an article by PJ Tobia, he pinpoints how there are massive amounts of people that cannot stomach the idea of America being a multicultural nation. There are so many people that are still hoping for the past to catch up to the future and bring back the idea that whites are the superior race and no other race should have any equal or higher authority over them. The article states how these individuals are content with having other races and cultures living on the American soil, however they are not suppose to be share the same social statuses. They are supposed to be caterers and miners for the whites; they believe there should be no equality amongst them and other races. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everyone has the right to dream whatever dream they want. I feel that we were all born equal because we were all born sinners in which are offered the same opportunity to get into heaven. Some people are just stuck in their ways of the past in which they pass down to their children to continue a cycle that will never end; therefore children born in this generation are living their lives with views and understandings of the past which disables them from embracing the new diverse nation.  This cycle can never end if fear remains a factor; fear that the white history will be forgotten. History is documented in so many books with so many different views that it is impossible for any of it to be forgotten. I believe that people are content with living with views from the past; they allow their comfortable state of mind to paralyze them and keep them from moving forward and embracing the new way of living.

            All around the world multiculturalism is taking place and is being accepted. America has embraced it more so than other nations such as the Europeans, the British, and the Turkish have. In the article, Why multiculturalism is wrong, states how other nations such as the Netherlands will not allow multiculturalism to take place in its nation. Although the Dutch and the Chinese people have migrated to the Netherlands they have not been welcomed with open hands and are not allowed to indulge in the traditions of the Netherlanders. The Dutch or the Chinese people are not allowed to learn languages that are not of their culture. Chinese people are only allowed to be taught Dutch, even the children that were born in the Netherlands are not allowed to learn other languages. I think this is terrible. I admire the fact that America allows its students to be taught other languages. This increases their opportunities in becoming successful. I think that that is done to maintain some sort of control over the nation, so that everyone knows their role and the boundaries they should and shouldn’t cross. I think diversity is a great concept to have; it opens up the door to so many great ideas, and revelations. Every culture has something to offer and if we can all work together this world would be a better world.

References:

2011. Multiculturalism. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism

Taylor, S. (Unknown). The challenge of 'multiculturalism' in how Americans view the past and the future. Institute for Historical Review. Retrieved from http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p159_Taylor.html

Treanor, P. (2007). Why multiculturalism is wrong. Nation Planet. Retrieved from http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/multicult.html

Tobia, P.J. (Feb. 2009). Pithissippi burning: Race, white nationalism and American culture. Retrieved from http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2009/02/23/pithissippi-burning-race-white-nationalism-and-american-culture