Composition: History & Theory: 1970 - 1979
Equality and Multicultural Education
Description
In The American School From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (2008), Joel Spring outlines a number of developments and conflicts involving multicultural education during this time period. In the 1970s, American Indians were able to run their own education and health programs as well as have the right to religious language and freedom. However, at this point many of the languages had already been lost and needed to be resurrected. Asian Americans were considered “ideal” students because they possessed personality traits that were desirable: “obedience, punctuality, neatness, self-discipline, and high achievement motivation” (431). However, these qualities did not transfer into workplace success. In 1974 the case of Lau v. Nichols stated that equal educational opportunity to non-English-speaking students required additional programs to help these students learn English. A study done in 1970 in San Francisco found that 62% of Chinese-speaking students were receiving no additional instruction. The other 38% had a daily 40-minute session of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instruction (434). Meanwhile, in the 1948 case Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District, “the court ruled that segregating Mexican American Children was illegal and discriminatory” (436). Spring notes that the rule “required that all local school districts end all segregation” (436). However, segregation was still prevalent during this time period. This was achieved by manipulating school district lines and segregating children in the same building by allowing students of Mexican American ancestry to be taken out of class to receive special education in English. At this time, however, bilingual education was seemingly supported by all except for some in the ruling elite. The argument was that English and the Anglo-Saxon culture should be the norm because it is through these core values that the abolition of slavery, the extension of political rights to women, and the formation of Civil Rights campaigns by African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, and Asian Americans was possible (445). The backlash was due in part to the Immigration Act of 1965 which halted quotas on immigration from different countries.
During this time, Spring notes, there was also a push for textbooks to reflect the culture of the United States as being made up of many different types of people. Women also began to look toward equal rights. In 1972, Title IX passed which prohibited sexual discrimination in federally-assisted education programs (446-447).
In Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, evidence was given that handicapped and retarded children could be educated. This resulted in the formation of the individual education plan (IEP) which allowed for the local education agency to work with parents or guardians to determine the correct services for each child (448).
Date of Upload
3/14/09