Blog Entry #3

I believe that multi-cultural behavior is foreign to almost everyone.  It is natural to want to be within a community that shares you interests, and there's nothing wrong with that.  Multi-cultural behavior, therefore, has to be learned, and censoring material in public schools has to stop if that's going to happen.

What do we want children to learn about history?  If America is going to be the debatably multi-cultural society that was set forth in the Constitution, then doesn't all history have to be set forth, as ugly as it is?  I don't believe that children should be kept in ignorance of the truth of history, but I also am skeptical about who thinks they're qualified to dole out that truth. 

I was listening to an episode of "This American Life" today on my commute, and the story was about a couple that had established contact with three Iraqi brothers at the start of the Iraqi/American war.  This contact lasted for more than 7 years, and continues today, and the issue that kept coming up on the side of the Iraqi brothers was why are you lying to us about our own country?  There were discrepancies in what the American couple heard on the news and would tell these young men about their history-in-the-making, and they couldn't understand why the things these Americans were telling them might happen weren't happening.  They were heart-broken that the trust they built up with people from another culture continued to be torn down.

The point is that this well-meaning couple didn't know that their news was flawed or what effect it was having on the minds of these brothers.  I think this happens in the States in public schools, as well.  Children are indoctrinated to believe one thing, only to find out when they're old enough to sort things out that it isn't true.  I have a student from India at the moment, and the only way I could make her understand pre-Revolution America was by comparing it to what happened in the Kashmir Valley.  You'd better believe she understood that, and had lots to say on the behalf of the plight of Pocahontas afterward.  

One teacher in Norway explained to her students that America was no longer a melting pot, but a salad bowl, in which all people had to be tossed....lettuce, tomato, and cucumber all had to be in there with croutons and dressing, and they're all different, but can taste delicious together!  What a metaphor!  

Sorry you all couldn't see the cartoon in my last blog!  Will try to find a link to it to post on email, because it really is funny and enlightening!  

Cheers!