The debate over Multicultural Education in 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 in searching for a better life, the population naturally become more diverse. This has in turn spun a great debate over multiculturalism. One of the issues under debate is Who is benifiting from the education, and How to present the material in a way that does not offend the different cultures.
In the 1930's several educators called for programs of cultural diversity that encouraged ethnic and minority students to study their respective heritages. This wasen't easy cause there is much diversity within individual cultures. A look at the 1990 census show that the American population has changed more noticably 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, White, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander or American Indian.(Gould198) The number of foreign born residents also reached an all time high of twenty million,easily passing the1980 record of fourteen million. Most people from educators to philosopers agree that an important first step in successfully joining multiple cultures is to develope an understanding of each other 's background. However the similarities stop there. .
Many try to suggest a different way of arriving at that culturally integrated society but to me everyone seem to have a different opion of what will work. Since education is at the root of the problem, it might be appropriate to use an example in that context. Although the debate at Stanford University ran much deeper than I can hope to touch in this paper, the root of the problem was as follows: In 1980, Stanford University came up with a program-later known as the " Stanford-style multicultural curriculum" which aimed to familiarize students with traditions, philosophy, literature and history of the west.
