New Immigration/ Multiculturalism In Education

When I began reading “Multiculturalism in School Curriculum”, I did not agree with it at all. The author began with, “I disagree with the many teachers today who are pushing the notion that in order to teach multiculturalism in school curriculum, teachers must actually move away from the traditional curriculum” (Waxler, A. (n.d.). This did not sit well with me because the traditional curriculum does not teach multiculturalism. The definition of curriculum is “a course of study in one subject at a school or college”(curriculum). In order to teach multiculturalism the curriculum will have to be changed. With our country becoming more and more multicultural, it is only appropriate that the curriculum incorporate the contributions all cultures have made. When I was in grade and high school, there was a major focus on the contributions Anglo-American made to our country. Yes there was a mention of the contributions African Americans made, but it was greatly minimized. It was mentioned during a part of one lesson. I learned of the many inventions and contributions African Americans made that we enjoy today through my own personal research. Every student doesn’t have the ability or desire to learn outside the classroom so this should be included in each school’s curriculum.
The author also said it’s fine to include different cultures in teaching, but to pull out individual cultures is “intellectual segregation” (Waxler, A. (n.d.). I can see the author’s point, but he fails to mention or possibly understand the reason and history of Black History Month. Dr. Carter G. Woodson noticed a lack of the black population represented in textbooks and began to write about it. He established Negro History Week in 1926, which became Black History Month in 1976 (History of black history month). Information like this is very vital in education. If the author knew the history and meaning of Black History Month he might view it differently. I really like how the author teaches World War II. He provides information to the students and divides them into separate groups with each group focusing on a particular group of Americans. He allows the students to develop their own impression of what happened. This is a great way to approach this and if my history teachers had taught history this way, I probably would have enjoyed history and retained more information. History was not taught to me in this manner. It was recitation and memorization of dates and dead people that I could not relate to so I had a strong dislike for history. After reading the method in which he teaches history, I understand why he feels curriculum doesn't have to be changed in order to teach multiculturalism. The truth is all teachers do not teach with multiculturalism in mind and in order to include it for all students the curriculum must be changed.



I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Toward A Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School”. The Core Knowledge Foundation is an organization that believes students should be taught basic functions and share common points of reference that will enable further learning. This shared knowledge should take up only 50% of classroom time (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). There is a belief this shared knowledge should be much more multicultural. I agree there should be some core fundamental things that all students should be taught. The article goes on to explain there are two types of multiculturalism, “cosmopolitanism” and “ethnic loyalism” (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.).
Cosmopolitanism is being a citizen of the world. In this way of thinking “ethnicity is not one’s essence, but an accident of history”
(Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). Ethnic loyalism is the belief that acclimating to a larger cosmopolitan culture is losing one’s identity. In contrast to cosmopolitanism, “the very idea of ethnicity defines the essence of a person” (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). I see now, but I didn’t know there are two kinds of multiculturalism. I would consider myself to have what the author explains as “dual citizenship”. I’m a part of my particular ethnos and the larger cosmopolis. In other words, I’m apart of and identity with my culture, also consider myself a citizen of the world. The article shifts from the intellectual history of multiculturalism to its place in education. I completely agree with this statement regarding the unfairness in schools, “we adults have failed to set clear knowledge-goals for each grade of elementary school.” (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). When I think back on my elementary education, I can think of one grade where I knew I was going to learn a particular skill. I knew in the third grade I would learn the multiplication table and how to write in cursive. Other than that, I really didn’t know what was expected of me prior to entering the grade. This is a very valid point made. In the younger grades, especially kindergarten thorough second students probably will not completely understand if the expectations were explained to them, but I’m certain the older student would understand. Even if the students don’t understand it’s important that parents and guardians know what to expect so they can help their child succeed. This understanding, I believe, will result in some students performing better. To further support this thinking the article says “ The obvious antidote to the thinness and incoherence of American early education is for us adults to reach agreement, as is done in other countries, on a core of content for each grade of elementary school” (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). In order for the education system to improve all educators need to be on the same page figuratively and literally. The Core Knowledge Foundation came up with the Core Knowledge Sequence that includes the three characteristics of an ideal multicultural curriculum. The characteristics are “it encourages knowledge of and sympathy towards the diverse cultures of the world, it fosters respect for every child’s home culture as well as for the cosmopolitan school-based culture, and it gives all children competence in the current system of language and allusion that is dominant in the nations economic and intellectual discourse. The civil rights movement is what led to the idea of multiculturalism in education. This affects the curriculum for history and literature would have to change in order for this to occur (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). This is fantastic and I completely agree with it. The Core Knowledge Foundation created a specialized core curriculum for the early grades called the Core Knowledge Sequence. The plan is for the Core Knowledge Sequence “to constitute about 50% of a school’s curriculum, thereby allowing for local variation, including integration with more ethnically-centered curricula” (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). This is a brilliant idea, because all students will have the same basic knowledge, but the schools have flexibility to adapt to the cultures of the students attending the school. The quote that impacted me the most is “It will do black American children little good to learn a lot about their African and African-American past if they still cannot read and write effectively, do not understand natural science, and cannot solve basic mathematical problems” (Hirsch, Jr, E.D.). This really made perfect sense to me. It appears that some are so focused on changing the curriculum to be multicultural, that the main reason for education is lost. I believe multiculturalism is needed in education, but as the article points out students need to know fundamental information and then incorporate multiculturalism. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article.

The final article is “Organizers See “New Civil Rights Movement” in Immigration Protests”. After reading the title, I immediately thought I would read this article and be frustrated. My frustration comes from the way the government handles immigrants. The United States is a country of immigrants, so I am not against immigration. I’m not a supporter of letting illegal immigrants stay without going through the proper procedures to become legalized. The article tells of a three week nationwide protest in March of 2006 hoping to convince the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass a more immigrant friendly Bill (Kyriakou, N (March 29, 2006). The Bill protesters are trying to change is the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. The House of Representatives passed this bill in December of 2006. Here is an explanation of the legislation,

“Would increase penalties for violating immigration laws, make some civil violations of immigration law into criminal offenses, step up enforcement of immigration law and expand the list of violations that render a non-citizen deportable. Unauthorized entry and presence in the United States, currently civil violations, would become felony crimes, punishable by more than a year in jail. It would also become a felony for anyone to provide any type of assistance to an undocumented immigrant. The bill imposes mandatory minimum sentences for immigrants convicted of re-entering the country after deportation, requires mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants for an indefinite period of time, and increases the expedited removal of immigrants without judicial review. Mandatory employer verification of immigration status of every employee in the country – including U.S. citizens – would be required after six years. The bill also increases enforcement along the United States border and provides for increased use of military surveillance equipment.

I am in complete support of this bill because the immigration policies in the United States need to be stepped up. We have been far too lenient in allowing illegal immigrants to stay. The event that comes to mind are the horrific events of 911. Although it is nearly impossible to keep track of every single illegal immigrant, if laws such as this were passed, I believe the likelihood of 911 would have been vastly decreased. The article goes on to compare this protest to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. I do not see the correlation at all. The civil rights movement involved legal American citizens protesting to make end segregation legislation.African-Americans who were already living in America for multiple generatons. This situation is regarding illegal immigrants being allowed to stay without proper documentation. I understand people from other countries escaping life there for the hope of a better life in American, but that is not the same as the civil rights movement. Basically it “would legalize undocumented immigrants if they pay their back taxes, learn English, and follow a number of other requirements” (Border Protection). I have no problem with immigrants wanting to payback taxes and learn English. My problem is with them arriving here illegally and gaining employment and not going through the proper procedures to legally stay in the country. What if some illegal immigrants start the process but don’t complete it? What happens to them? Are they allowed to stay because they paid some taxes, but for example didn’t learn English or follow other requirements? This is quite vague and needs to be thoroughly explained so those who arrive here know what is expected in order for them to stay here. The article mentions some consider this legislation anti-immigrant. In a way see where people could feel that way, but there is an immigration process in place and everyone should follow the law or face the penalties. Again, I am not anti-immigrants; I just want them to go through the legal way of remaining in the United States. I truly enjoyed reading and researching about all three articles.





Two kinds of multiculturalism “Children will become adults who cooperate and sustain one anther only if the school-based culture they gain makes them feel that they truly belong to the larger society”
(Hirsch, Jr, E.D.).



References

Border Protection Antiterrorism, And Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (n.d.). themiddleclass.org. Retrieved from
http://themiddleclass.org/bill/border-protection-antiterrorism-and-illegal-immigration-control-act-2005

Curriculum. Dictionary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/curriculum


Hirsch, Jr. E.D. (1992). Toward a centrist curriculum: Two kinds of multiculturalism in elementary school. Retrieved from
http://teachingcontent.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/4/CentCurr.pdf


History of black history month. January 30, 2006. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2006-01-30/politics/extra.black.history.month_1_black-history-month-history-week-woodson?_s=PM:EDUCATION


Kyriakou, N (March 29, 2006). Organizers see “new civil rights movement” in immigration protests”. Retrieved from
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0329-03.htm


Waxler, A. (n.d.). Multiculturalism in school curriculum. Retrieved from
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?page=7;read=1621

Multiculturalism

I’m not sure how to feel about the “Pithissipi Burning” article. When I first started reading, I was really angry and then I became sad at the amount of ignorance and lack of acceptance that remains in the United States. It really bothered me that the writer considers himself or herself “an aficionado of hate literature” (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I am aware that everyone is entitled to his or her own preferences, but to be attracted to literature focusing on hatred really made me uneasy. Instead of focusing on such negative things, we should focus on how we can make things better. Complaining about issues and problems will not resolve anything. The time, energy, and effort used to spread such venom should be used in a positive way. This article really focuses on the ignorance of racists. A movement called “The Northwest Homeland” is discussed. It’s a group of white separatists, who relocated to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho and forced the “mud people” who currently live there out. (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I had to find out who the “mud people” are. Upon further research, I found mud people are non-white people. (Christian identity) I wanted to be mad about this, but when I thought about it, this is truly sad. It saddened me to discover Christian Pastor, Richard Girnt Butler, founded this group (The Northwest Homeland-History). The word Christian means to be Christ-like. Jesus Christ is not a racist. He doesn’t exclude anyone. While on earth, He went to the places no one else wanted to go. I just don’t understand this way of thinking. These people moved to the northwest portion of the country and exclude themselves from the rest of society because the white “race is being wiped out” (The Northwest Homeland- FAQ). It is impossible to ignore the fact there are different races, but to be so extreme as to degrade people because of the color of their skin is ridiculous. The author also references a book called “The Brigade,” by H.A Covington. A quote from the book was the single most disturbing part of the entire article, “The Brigade is a nuts and bolts diagram of how this white homeland should be started, complete with instructions on organizing terror cells, details on military and propaganda tactics and plenty of diatribes against the federal government, Jews, blacks, and Hispanics”. (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I was left speechless after reading that. To think there is a detailed manual of how to disperse the hatred of other races and the government is sickening. The last part of the article talks about the book, “The New White Nationalism”, by Carol Swain. The book is about thorough research she has done of white nationalism groups. Her research showed the assimilation of black art in the popular culture of the United States has ignited their efforts of obtaining more white nationalists. (Tobia, P.J. 2009).This isn’t surprising to me. I’m certain being asked about their hatred of other races only fueled white supremacy. It wasn’t until the end of the article that I realized the author isn’t a supporter of this type of thinking. The author’s comment “those of us on the other side of the issue don’t have a handbook for how to move forward with this kind of social and cultural integration” (Tobia, P.J. 2009). I completely agree with his statement, because with that type of thinking it is harder to truly become one unified nation. After reading this article, it is apparent to me we’ve come a long was as country, but until the taught hatred of racism stops, we continue to have a long way to go in acceptance of everyone regardless of race.


I found “The Challenge of “Multiculturalism” in How Americans Views the Past and the Future” an interesting read. I never thought about it, but a nation defines itself by how it teaches its children about itself (Taylor, S. (n.d). As, I was reading this article, I was fascinated that multiculturalism is now being taught in schools. When I was in grade and high school, I was taught the “white history” of the United States. It’s been many years, but the main things I remember learning about are the Mayflower, Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Presidents, and Wars the United States was involved with. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I had questions as to why I was being taught what I was being taught. I never could understand why Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the United States of America when the Indians were already there. I asked teachers, peers, and family about that and never got an answer I truly understood. This article brought out points I agree with. A point that I experienced, but didn’t think of in these terms is “The purpose of American public education has never been to impart knowledge. One of its central goals has been to make children into Americans” (Taylor, S. (n.d.). I found this out to be true in my own education. Sometimes when my classmates or I would ask the teacher a question, I would hear “that’s the way it is” or the subject would be changed. I found this to mean there are things in our society students should not question. In other words, this is how things are done in America. Reading and understanding what I experienced is so profound. The article also mentions the history taught the pre- multiculturalism way of teaching is “history about white people for white people” (Taylor, S. (n.d.) This makes so much sense to me. At the foundation of education there were only white people in the classrooms. Curriculum for how to teach was geared towards white people because that is who taught the classes and that is what it meant to be an American. As time has passed other races and ethnicities have migrated to America, causing a problem in the way the history of the country is taught. The biggest lessons I learned reading this article is “history has a point of view; it cannot be all things to all people” (Taylor, S. (n.d.). My view of this perspective greatly changed after reading this. I thought the history of America is going to be taught the way it has also been forcing on the contributions of Anglo-America descent and not teaching the contributions from other races. I’m forced to think about my history and realize all we have is our own perspective. What’s important to Mexican- Americans in terms of the history of America is not the same for what is important to African-Americans. It is impossible to teach the complete history of the United States without leaving something or someone out. All races have contributed to the history of this country and that is what makes America such a great nation. Reading about certain areas in the country catering the history to the race of the students is good, but it would be great if all students got the opportunity get a well-rounded education of this nation’s history. I know that is a vague statement, but if some of the contributions of all races are taught, then no race will be left out. Everyone will not be pleased, but at least it will be a much more accurate depiction of history instead


The “Why Multiculturalism Is Wrong” article discusses the program “education in own language and culture”. Education in own language is the idea that regardless of where a child is born they will be taught the language of their ancestry. This is a program utilized in the Netherlands. A child can have an “own” language of Turkish and speak only Dutch. This can happen if both parents are Turkish citizens. (Why multiculturalism is wrong). The child will be taught Turkish because of his or her hereditary. This was bizarre to me because regardless if the child used their parents’ language, it was still taught to them. An interesting topic in this article is the multiculturalist’s link of culture to the existing nation (Why multiculturalism is wrong). In other words, if a child with Armenian parents were born in the United States, the child would be Armenian. The article goes on to explain this is not exclusive to this part of the world. The use of hyphenated identities is consistent with the particular country (Why multiculturalism is wrong). After reading this article, I’m certain multiculturalism is a societal issue. In essence, this all comes down to race. It is called “multiculturalism”, but it’s a fancy way of saying different races.
For some reason unknown to me, people like to categorize things and people. Identifying what ethnicity or race someone belongs to is a part of human nature, in my experience. I am not referencing this being used in a discriminatory or destructive way, but simply a way to categorize. We are visual beings and we use someone’s race or ethnicity to describe them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all three articles and truly learned about myself and how others view race in our society.



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

Christian Identity. (n.d.) retrieved from
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Christian_Identity.asp?xpicked=4&item=Christian_ID

The Northwest Homeland- FAQ. Retrieved from.
http://www.northwesthomeland.org/faq.html

The Northwest Homeland- History. Retrieved from
http://www.northwesthomeland.org/history.html

Taylor, S. (n.d). The challenge of “multiculturalism” in how Americans view the past and the future. Retrieved from
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p159_Taylor.html

Why multiculturalism is wrong. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/multicult.html