Multicultural Classical Type Of Education example essay topic

PYLES 1 Patricia Pyles 1 W 6-9 March/ 13/ 2000 MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION vs. CLASSICAL EDUCATION How important is education? Where should we get our resources that are children are being taught? There are two of them; one is the classical education and the multicultural education. What is the difference? The multicultural education is presented as the inginuitive way of teaching, incorporating all different cultures into our child's education. The classical education is the modern way of teaching.

Most secondary schools and colleges teach by this manner. Even though the classical education is the way most of us were educated by, doesn't mean that is the way it should stay. Just because the multicultural education is the new way of educating youngsters, doesn't mean everyone should jump on the band- wagon and follow multicultrism one hundred percent either. America was built on its diversity; therefore we should include multiculturalist ideas and work it into our classical education system.

A classical education will get a student through college better than a multicultural education will, but a multicultural education will get a person further in life that a classical education will. Classical education has many strong points in its system. To name a few, there is the authors like Poe, Twain, Shakespeare, Dickens, and Frost. Classical also has its roots in Europe and America, providing history through literature, books such as Grapes of Wraith and Of Mice and Men are based on some of the history of America. As the old saying goes, "those who don't know history are bound to repeat it". The students who have knowledge of there ancestors can prevent another Great Depression from occurring in America or they could learn a way to come to a solution instead of going to war.

Not only does classical education have history added into the literature it also has a wider range of language used, a more developed writing style, and the authors of the material are more educated and able to promote their feelings through words. "Introducing material from a Third World cultures and thinning out an already thin sampling of Western writings (Howe 493)". Because of America's great diversity of people from the start of the nation, America already has a great deal of multiculturalist writers in classical literature. A classical education is not all that our educational system should be based on either.

We need multiculturalistic views and beliefs in our system as well as classical system. A multicultural education better prepares a student for life in America. The majority of America is no longer of Western European decent. It is permeated with every race, sex, and culture in the world. A simple education of western culture does not include everyone in the United States. That is why multicultural education should be included into our systems.

To incorporate these two different educations would make both of them acceptable to both sides of the fence. A well-educated person has well-rounded knowledge of many different things including awareness of multicultural groups, and some of their history. Multicultural education has many positives, such as, its diversity of many different countries involved in the history of its material. Multicultural education also has a large variety of authors, so learning many different perspectives of one event, like World War 1 or World War 11 comes easy to choose an opinion on the topic. This type of education also builds up self-esteem of many different cultures.

By teaching the history of their nationalities, giving them a background of what their ancestors accomplished. Teaching a multicultural system would open the eyes of the students, so they could be informed on issues. Where the canon only looks at a perspective from a western culture point of view. Leaving out many other views that may better answer some of the questions students have. Because a multicultural education is so diverse there are many different cultures to learn. If we switched our educational system from classical to multicultural there would be a mass confusion different cultures blended together.

Not all of the students would understand all the different cultures being taught. "The goal that Paring and others like him pursue is the transformation of the college classroom from a place of learning to a laboratory of indoctrination for social change (D'Souza 477)". Multiculturalism also builds self-esteem; by teaching the history of technological advances, and other types of inventions and so forth produced by different cultures. There is nothing wrong with building self-esteem in this manner, but there should be more focus on building self-esteem through the educational process. Although the multicultural education has many advantages we should stay with the classical style of education. The classical style is the history of America and has roots all the way back to Western Europe.

That is one of the reasons we should stick with our classical educational system. Including multiculturalism will further strengthen our educational process. We need to take a stand to keep classical education as our major system of teaching. Without the classical form of education the majority of America would not be taught about their past.

Instead they would learn about everyone else's histories, which would put us in the same position as the debate of multiculturalism and classical. Multicultural education has many strong points, therefore we should incorporate their literature into the classical system. Because America is not completely of Western European descent anymore. We need a system that combines multicultural and classical education together to benefit all of America. Going one-way or the other would be unfair to the opposing party. It would rob minorities of knowing their history and culture, and the other would steal the foundations of America.

To come to a conclusion on this argument we need to compromise our differences to make this multicultural / classical type of education to work together because all of us are Americans in this diverse United States.