Negative Effects Of Multicultural Education

For years, there has been a debate among the educational and social realms: Is multicultural education harmful or helpful to us Americans and everything that make us "One America" as a whole? There is a saying that goes "A whole is greater than the sum of its parts". I am a firm believer that we, as Americans, should be united as one, not divided as many. When it comes to our education, no matter how many different types of education, they should be able be to relate or become as one. However, with all positive consequence, there is a negative consequence. In this essay, multicultural education will be reexamined and reviewed, through the views of two articles: Multicultural Education and the Curriculum Transformation by James A. Banks

and The Disuniting of America by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Is Multicultural Education helpful? Is it harmful? Maybe even both? This question will be answered as we analyze the details of multicultural education and the two corresponding articles that discuss this matter at
hand.

Multicultural education has been criticized as being harmful to the identity and idea of America.

On the other hand, African American scholars, as well as academics from other American minority groups argue that multicultural education is vital to the advancement of society as it supports newer and more different approaches to education. It also helps to shed light on previously ignored issues and it provides a whole new insight into what it means to be American. Multicultural education is a school reform movement that which peaked through and after the notorious civil rights movement of the 1960's and 1970's. A process that is considered never-ending, this level of education aimed to create more diverse teaching methods that could accommodate and aid students of all races and ethnicities, making it easier to soak in knowledge. The major goal, however, of multicultural education is to create "American Creed values"-bringing forth equality, justice, and freedom throughout schools nationwide and society as a whole. This type of education has arrived to challenge the oppression and suppression along with other facades of bias in order to bring forth the many diverse ethnic identities of students in ways that would provide a more creative, smooth, and well-rounded learning experience for all students. Multicultural education may have its critics, but it surely does have been endorsed by many. The biggest endorser would of course be Mr. James A.

Banks.
James A. Banks was a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of its Center for Multicultural Education. Banks, along with his 30-year experience in the field, believed that if "implemented in a thoughtful, creative, and effective way, multicultural education has the potential to transform schools and educational institutions in ways that will enable them to prepare students to live and function effectively in the coming century"(Banks). He also believed that transformative knowledge of academics could re-invent the vision of the curriculum in schools all over the nation. Many critics have compared multicultural education to multiculturalism and, yet, have been consistently corrected by Banks and others in terms of their definitions. According to Banks, he has conceptualized multicultural education a way that consists of three components: an idea, an educational reform movement, and a process (Banks). Banks describes multicultural education as a form of education that represents the students that are denied equal educational opportunities because of their racial ethnic, and social, sexual, and gender characteristics (Lee & Slaughter-Defoe), and strives to reform the teaching plans that have been engraved in schools for years. Multiculturalism was basically a term that is only used by critics who oppose of diverse academic and social teachings.
Banks presented what he believed was the five dimensions of multicultural education: Content integration, the knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and of course empowering school culture and social structure; he believed that these dimensions could serve as the yardstick for developing and assessing theory that multicultural teachings in society could further aid a more perfect academic and social climate.

It was also believed that academic achievements could be increased for students of color and of low-income by teaching newer and more diverse strategies that assist to their strengths in learning. In the first paragraph, I mentioned that a whole is greater than some of its parts. In this special case, multicultural education requires that in order to effectively reform schools, the "whole" entire system must be reconstructed, not just "some of its parts". It’s important seeing as that race, class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity are such a sensitive matter

of
today. Most knowledge, these days, is considered mainstream. With Banks’ five dimensions, teachers are allowed to switch up their ways of teaching to accommodate students of diverse cultures and races, to help students "acquire new perspectives on development of U.S. history and society via the transformative academic knowledge. This has allowed scholars of the transformative era to create scholarships that challenge, head on, the ideas and teaching s that are often in the nation's schools. They have reached a point where they challenged even the racist practices such as slavery, removal of Native Americans and their land, segregation, and oppression of minorities that are either from another country or have ancestors of another country that are "not white", fighting their beliefs of minorities being inferior and supporting the inequality of those races and cultures.
Despite white mainstream and media ignoring the communities, the black scholars continue to push on by accepting jobs at HBC (Historic Black Colleges) to continue to educate many and at the same time have their voices be heard so that word could be spread along with the knowledge of black history.
However, the confusion still remains with multicultural education among those of the social and educational realm, most of which has been expressed by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The writer of "The Disuniting of America, he has been part of the reason that multicultural education has received a not so great reception with many. Schlesinger believes that "as ideological conflict disappears, humanity resurfaces" which can lead to a "dangerous era of racial uproar to come "(Schlesinger). Migration of many different ethnic groups has caused mass antagonism and race has been, thus, the most common downside of America. With Schlesinger, he believes that mixing different races, ethnic groups, and religions will "drive them apart" from each other unless there is truly a bonding similarity or common purpose. Schlesinger believes, without a doubt, that nonwhite Americans have not received the credit that they deserved because he visualizes that they became citizens of American and helped give the culture of America a since of what is known now as a "melting pot". He also believes that racism is "the great failure of the American experiment (Schlesinger)" because, despite America's need to show what being American is all about, minorities are still discriminated against and treated unfairly and inferior to the white race.
With that being said, there is quite an understanding as to why many still are against multicultural education, and even those that are for it are skeptical as to how it can completely change a Nation that has dealt with racism, oppression, injustice, and cultural inferiority for centuries. With multicultural education, there is the fear that by teaching diversity to aid to different races, that it will lead to resegregation of the races, and instead of the talks of history being about unity, it will be separating the races yet again. Instead, we should teach and train society and students that we want assimilation and integration, not inferiority and segregate. What could be even more harmful, is separating our black youth and other races from one another because it gives them the idea that this is the way that life is suppose to be-divided from one another based on skin color and cultural background.
Schlesinger also believes that immigrants from another country shall learn to speak proper English or they will be subject to being treated as "second-class citizens in American society."
Indeed, America would be doomed, for sure, if the children of our future believed that every race should be separated and that we should remain learning about our own cultures, then we are ultimately defeating the purpose of unity and equality. It is quite ironic to me and has now come to my realization that at first I was in agreeance with multicultural education, and although I still agree with its intentions and goals for the future of minorities in America, there are flaws. Then again, in every good idea or concept lies a conflict of interest or flaw. I fully agree with trying to help our students learn more of their history of where they have came from in terms of their cultural and ancestral background because it is not really taught in most schools, community colleges, and universities across America. However, we forget that we are further separating ourselves from retaining and maintaining our freedom to feel that we are equal amongst white America, to be considered American- not African American, not Asian-American, not Mexican-American, etc. We feel so strongly in our hearts that we want to be equal and creating diverse ways of teaching that we forget about what the American Dream is really all about- being able to consider yourself American and being equal to one another without having any racial, cultural, sexual, and social boundaries that divide us. We are one, not many. Multicultural education has so many positives that are associated with it. It strives to recreate and redefine education in ways that it can help our future. It is a never-ending process that can either succeed miraculously or fail tremendously. I have hope that it can succeed. I will be absolutely clear on one matter: I do not agree with most of Schlesinger's ideas because they are for the most part ignorant and to far inside the box. I agree with how multicultural education can truly affect our country and the future in a dangerous way, but I can see how this type of education can enlighten many and design a nation of truth and understanding. Although I have hope for multicultural education, I feel that overall it can lead us even further into the hole of injustice, racism, suppression, discrimination, and inhumanity that we are already located in currently in this society of America.