No one would accuse one of the greatest of all political figures in American history, Abraham Lincoln, of being against equality. In his time, America had already experienced the stresses of immigration. There were German immigrants who fought to speak their own language. There were Irish immigrants who formed their own parochial schools to preserve religious freedom. Oriental men were out west, building the railroads under exploitive conditions and of course there were Black slaves. In spite of these conditions, on the day of Lincoln's most renowned speech, at the end of a bloody civil war, which won liberation for an subjugated people, he stated unequivocally that, "Any city or house divided against itself shall not stand" (Matt 12:25, NAS Bible, 1053).
For Lincoln, the granting of freedom did not mean the relinquishing of our countries national identity of cohesiveness.
[...] Richburg makes no excuses for the atrocities his people endured, nor does he defend slaver, but in an attitude that would make proud the vision of Lincoln and would positively further the goals of multicultural education, Richburg reflects, better that we all put our energies into making America work better, into realizing the dream of a multiracial society, than in clinging to the myth that we belong anyplace else” (Richburg, B-11). Works Cited American Heritage Dictionary. Second College Edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company 1982: 955. [...]
[...] Multicultural education particularly in urban, poor, minority, school districts are embracing a form of particularism. This is in an effort to institute more effective learning techniques. One of the methods is based on the theory of cultural predisposition and how it affects individual learning style. Urban schools are responding to a situation, which may be more than the result of profoundly inequitable distribution of educational resources”, which leave “most city schools starved and desperate” (Ayers, then the need for racially motivated bolstering. [...]
[...] Faulty scholarship does nothing to prepare children for American jobs, In American society, replace modern mathematics with ancient ethnic mathematics runs the risk of disaster in a field that is struggling to update existing curricula ancient mathematics is taught mainly to minority children, the gap between them and middle class white children is apt to grow” (Ravitch, 345). Fairness of this type is only breeding future failure. One statistic in “Goodbye to Affirmative Action” by Andrew Hacker, illustrated that in the entering class at UCLA in 1994 far fewer of black and Hispanic classmates were admitted on the basis of academic criteria” then their White and Asian counterparts. [...]
[...] I'm sure Abraham Lincoln would agree that, diversity should nevertheless be incorporated into an idea of America as a common culture built on such common principles as liberty, democracy and equality” (Couglin, A-8). The transmission of history, for example, should incorporate the truth that American ideals of liberty, democracy and equality had been denied to many groups. It should also include how civil rights and recognition has been gained because of the bravery and commitment of individuals over the years. [...]
[...] Extremism on each pole is causing a fevered debate as to how to best educate a diverse and multicultural America. America today is not unlike the divided, immigrant and new2ly emancipated America that Lincoln was addressing. Each side, advancing their own agenda without regard to reason or to others, they threaten public education itself, making it difficult to teach any issues honestly and making the entire curriculum vulnerable to political campaigns” (Ravitch, 338). The argument, I believe, is being described by Diane Ravitch in her article, E Pluribus Plures. [...]
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