The Debate Over Multicultural Education in America 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 moreand more immigrants come to America searching for a better life, thepopulation naturally becomes more diverse. This has, in turn, spun a greatdebate over multiculturalism. Some of the issues under fire are who isbenefiting from the education, and how to present the material in a way so asto offend the least amount of people. There are many variations on thesethemes as will be discussed later in this paper.In the 1930's several educators called for programs of cultural diversitythat encouraged ethnic and minority students to study their respectiveheritages. This is not a simple feat due to the fact that there is much diversitywithin individual cultures. A look at a 1990 census shows that the Americanpopulation has changed more noticeably in the last ten years than in any othertime in the twentieth century, with one out of every four Americansidentifying themselves as black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, orAmerican Indian (Gould 198). The number of foreign born residents alsoreached an all time high of twenty million, easily passing the 1980 record offourteen million. Most people, from educators to philosophers, agree that animportant first step in successfully joining multiple cultures is to develop anunderstanding of each others background. However, the similarities stopthere. One problem is in defining the term "multiculturalism". When it islooked at simply as meaning the existence of a culturally integrated society,many people have no problems. However, when you go beyond that and tryto suggest a different way of arriving at that culturally integrated society,Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what will work. Sinceeducation is at the root of the problem, it might be appropriate to use anexample in that context. Alt...
