Public Schools Should Emphasize the Assimilation of Minorities
Those who feel equally strongly that the public schools should continue to emphasize the assimilation of minorities into society and the modern economy by focusing on the core intellectual and cultural values of the Western world. Those who hold this position still believe in the notion of the "melting pot," our best-known assimilation metaphor.
Although it was originally intended as a metaphor for leveling the sociocultural and racial playing field in the United States, the melting-pot concept has been criticized for being discriminatory in practice. (The author once asked the Black civil rights leader Jesse Jackson Jr. whether he believed in the melting pot-to which Jackson responded that in his opinion, most Blacks were stuck on the side of the pot.)
Advocates of the melting pot claim that multiculturalism lowers academic standards by establishing preferential policies for minority students for admission to colleges and universities; substituting "feel-good" learning for academic rigor by overemphasizing selfesteem gained through reverence for one's ethnicity and linguistic traditions; and dividing U.S. society by segregating students and teaching them competing ethnocentrisms through curricular approaches, such as Afrocentric education and bilingual/bicultural education.
These critics believe that such programs undermine U.S. common culture by denying its Western roots, teaching the "wrong" values, and deemphasizing traditional moral authority based on Western religious principles. Choosing to leave one's cultural and linguistic heritage behind can be a sad and difficult experience. Others in the family may not understand the decision and may not speak the new language. In addition, individuals who choose to assimilate are often accused by their original communities and other marginalized groups of having "sold out."
Thus, for example, Black youngsters who are said to "act White" may be stigmatized as "Oreos": Black on the outside and White on the inside. There are also no guarantees that an individual who has chosen to cut off his or her original roots will be accepted by the dominant society if there is a history of prejudice and discrimination against individuals and groups from certain racial and cultural backgrounds.
The ideology and processes of assimilation thus have profound implications for school and society. In states such as California and Arizona, with restrictive English-only language policies, schools face tough ideological and curricular decisions regarding the use of other languages for instructional purposes. In such situations, teachers must work with students, parents, colleagues, and community members at each end of the spectrum-those who believe that schools have a duty to help students assimilate as a way of preparing them for life in the dominant society and those who believe in the value of pluralism-to strike a balance.
Although the need to balance everyone's interests can be a daunting task for teachers, it can also be a valuable opportunity to learn more about opposing views in an area where great understanding is sorely needed, and the assimilation of minorities into society and the modern economy should be one of the greatest targets of our Society.
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