Multicultural Education In America

Multicultural Education in America

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

ethnicities. 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 under fire are who is benefiting from the education, and

how to present the material in a way so as to offend the least amount

of people. There are many variations on these themes as will be

discussed later in this paper.

In the 1930's several educators called for programs of

cultural diversity that encouraged ethnic and minority students to

study their respective heritages. This is not a simple feat due to

the fact that there is much diversity within individual cultures. A

look at a 1990 census shows that the American population has changed

more noticeably in the last ten years than in any other time in the

twentieth century, 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 underezding ...

Multicultural Education In America

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