Respond to the following questions:
When completing the assignment, rely upon information from the text, outside research, your personal opinions, conversations with other people.
How would you define a multicultural city. Has the United States traditionally promoted the idea of people becoming part of a melting pot, rather than part of a multicultural city?
In theory, schools can help promote multiculturalism as they teach students the value of accommodation and acceptance at an early age. However, they might never reach this much vaulted goal because groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, and parents who want to control schools’ agendas have loudly objected, for example, to the teaching of programs such as CRT.
Do you think that efforts on the part of individuals or groups who oppose teaching CRT in the schools can have a deleterious impact. Can they make it less likely that multiculturalism will gain a foothold through programs such as CRT? Or do you think their efforts are nothing more than political grandstanding, talking to the already committed for your own purposes?
Background information for the Assignment
America has not traditionally subscribed to multiculturalism; it has instead set assimilation as its gold standard. Yet, there are certain institutions in American – the educational system remains chief amongst them – that could lead it towards multiculturalism. The text (page 26) reads “American multiculturalism (where it does exist) is primarily lodged in educational policies, curricula…”
These days, however, the world is changing, and many factors are working against schools being positioned to teach multi-culturalism – acceptance and accommodation. Any effort in that direction would likely come under heavy opposition by groups/ individuals who remain determined to promote their own personal agendas as opposed to ones that encourage people to find common ground (multiculturalism). Vocal opposition to programs/ curricula that might promote multicultural have come from parents who confront school boards, members of conservative groups, and politicians, such as Florida Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Multiculturalism
DeSantis pushed what has come to be termed the “don’t say gay law” through the Florida Legislature. This legislation mandates that: “…classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Presented in less legalistic terms, it might be interpreted as turning schools into places where gay lifestyles remain hidden from view for extended periods of time instead of places where they are presented as being part of a multicultural totality.
Fewer Students Are Attending Public Schools
Also working against the schools introducing students to the tenants of multiculturalism at a young age: A smaller proportion of students are now attending public schools than was previously the case, a pattern that lessens the chances that they might be exposed to this ethos during their formative years.
The pandemic might be, at least in part, responsible for that decline. Three other schooling alternatives have seen bumps in enrollment numbers recently, often at the expense of public schools: private schools, charter schools at alternative schools have become quite popular. And school vouchers are helping to make alternatives to private schools affordable.
Another consideration: the schools some tightly knit communities have established to educate their children often focus heavily upon the culture and teachings of that community without necessarily bringing elements of the larger culture into play.
A case in point: New York City officials recently accused eighteen private schools (yeshivas) run by the Hasidic Jewish community with failing to provide their students with an adequate secular education. These findings marked the first instance of the city authorities concluding that private schools had failed to provide adequate instructions.
Also a consideration, an increasingly larger number of students are attending school only intermittently, becoming chronically absent. Because they are not in school regularly, they are not positioned to learn the tenants of multiculturalism or anything else for that matter.
Conservative groups push their own agendas
Then, there is the fact that conservative organizations are working to block instructions that could raise students’ awareness of some dark aspects of America’s history, nudging them towards greater acceptance of marginalized groups. A case in point: Critical race theory (CRT) which might be defined as being: “An academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. “
The Heritage Foundation, recently attributed a whole host of issues to CRT. They include the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, LGBTQ clubs in schools, diversity training in federal agencies and organizations, California’s recent ethnic studies model curriculum, the free-speech debate on college campuses.
Some members have even gone so far as to blame it for the Parkland School shootings. “When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based,” the organization concluded.
Parents protest at School Board Meetings
And some of the most vociferous protests against everything from teaching CRT to policies designed to accommodate transgender students have not been launched by organized groups, such as the Heritage Foundation. Rather, they have taken place at normally placid school board meetings where parents have shown up to voice their strongly held opinions.
Their tactics have one occasion become so extreme that the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking for help looking into the threats and bullying. “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the school boards association stated in the letter.
Links that can be used as sources for writing
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05
https://tri-c.webex.com/webappng/sites/tri-c/recording/5c860bc02d5f103cabbb005056819d00/playback
https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/3604392-nearly-2-million-fewer-students-have-enrolled-in-public-school/
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/chronic-absenteeism-what-you-need-to-know
https://www.heritage.org/civil-rights/report/critical-race-theory-the-new-intolerance-and-its-grip-america