Cultural Pluralism and Education

CULTURAL PLURALISM AND EDUCATION Perry Duntap Smith Memorial delivered at Chicago, April Lecture 1974. Cultural Pluralism has become the "in" concept for educators who are interested in the relations between racial and ethnic groups in America. It is remarkably popular among diverse groups in our society, and among groups who are hostile or at least suspicious of one another. A number of minority groups see cultural pluralism as an umbrella under which they can preserve their identity and protect their life styles. Some leaders of the white and Anglo majority see cultural pluralism as a means of insulation of certain minority groups, for which they are willing to offer certain material payments. Also our society's tendency to maximize freedom for individuals to live their own lives leads many Americans to favor a society which supports a plurality of life styles. To state the case favourably for cultural pluralism, one can say that this social philosophy respects and admires a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic life styles. This makes everybody a winner. But an opposed formulation says that cultural pluralism is a device which enables the dominant group to maintain its privileges and to admit only a few new comers to the inner circle on terms set by the dominant group. The dominant group bribes minority groups by giving them some material rewards for keeping themselves separate. I shall try to analyze the movement for cultural pluralism objectively, and then to state its educational implications. WHAT IS CULTURAL PLURALISM? In a society made up of a number of different sub-cultural groups, cultural pluralism means: - Mutual appreciation and understanding of every sub-culture by the other ones. - Freedom for each sub-culture to practice its culture and socialize its children. - Sharing by each group in the economic and civic life of the society. Some of the functions of a viable cultural pluralism are: 1. 2. To provide substantial opportunity to the members of each sub-culture to achieve happiness and life satisfaction in their own life style. To provide education and training for every member of every sub-culture of a kind and quality that will enable the individuals to earn a fair living to avoid poverty. 3. To provide employment or access to the labor force on equal terms to all members of the society. 4. To provide opportunity and encouragement for the youth of every sub-culture to associate with youth of other groups in activities of mutual interest. 5. To maintain freedom of individuals and groups to practice separatism, though perhaps at some sacrifice in terms of material standard of living. 6. To permit sub-groups to maintain a separate economic system as long as this does no damage to the general welfare of the society. 7. To permit sub-groups to carry on their own separate educational systems, though they must bear the extra expense. To make all sub-groups responsible for contributions to the general welfare of the society. 8. This is a positive definition, made by people and agencies who favor a policy of cultural pluralism. But there are some sceptics who say that this is a Utopian vision, and that we waste our time working for it. Before examining this view, let us summarize the situation of the American society with respect to sub-cultural groups. 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This policy assumed the desirability of maintaining the social institutions of England, the English language, and English-oriented cultural patterns as dominant and standard in American life. (1) Furthermore, the society was heavily Protestant, and there was much prejudice against Catholic immigrants. The German, Scandinavian, and Irish immigrants who predominated during the 1840 to 1890 period were accepted with some misgivings. • Most of the Irish and some of the Germans were Catholic. The Scandinavians were clannish and kept to their home languages. Still, the country was large, a growing industry needed labor, and the frontier was open. The society became more pluralistic in fact. THE MELTING POT Around the beginning of the 20th century, there developed the concept of a new, composite American nationality through the agency of frontier life as it spread across the middle of the country and on to the west. This was asserted by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner in his influential book, The Frontier in American History. The western frontier, he said, "acted as a solvent for the national heritages and separatist tendencies" of the European immigrants. (2) After 1880 there came a vast flow of immigration from southern Europe which made it clear that Anglo-conformity could not be a feasible social or political goal. The eastern cities and industry were filling up with a polyglot population. This had to be included in any conception of the structure of American society. , An English Jewish writer, Israel Zangwill, stated the new theory through his popular drama, The Melting Pot, first produced in America in 1908. The hero of the play is a Russian Jewish immigrant, who falls in love with a Gentile girl. The hero, in the rhetoric of his day, proclaims that America is God's Crucible, the great Melting Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming] "Here you stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at Ellis Island, here you stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries. But you won't be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of God you've come to these are the fires of God.