Multicultural Education

9 Pages 2168 Words

Multicultural Education


We are in search of the true America—an America of multiple cultures, multiple histories, multiple regions, multiple realities, multiple identities, multiple ways of living, surviving and being human. And no where is this struggle for the true America more profoundly being waged than in the classrooms of public schools in the United States. –Darder (Sleeter, 1995 p. 5)

Through this quote Darder sums up the reason for multicultural education; America consists of people of multiple characteristics and through multicultural education these differences can be found, understood and celebrated. Multicultural education is the key tool in educating youth today; with the goals behind it and the effects it will have on people, multicultural education is the foundation of a better society.
Multicultural education “affirms that schools should be oriented toward the cultural enrichment of all children and youth through programs…[that] preserve and extend… cultural alternatives”; it should “recognize cultural diversity” and its value as a resource (Baptiste, 1979 p. 16). Schools that practice multicultural education use different programs and curriculum to teach different aspects of cultures by integrating them into everyday studies. This kind of education is used to make students realize the importance and worth of diversity. A major emphasis in the definition of multicultural education is “cultural pluralism” –the resistance of the melting pot theory (Bennett, 1999 p. 11). Through cultural pluralism a person has the right to express their individuality and in turn respects the rights of and appreciates people of a different culture. Multicultural education contradicts the “historic American goals of assimilation and integration of ethnic cultures into the majority culture” (Wilson, 1997). Every aspect of multicultural education destroys the still widely accepted theory of an America...