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
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