The Integration of a Meaningful Multicultural Perspective into an
Emerging Whole-Language based Fourth Grade Classroom
1. Our "New World Order" in Crisis: Melting pot-ism or Cultural plural-ism?
B.N. Kumisawa (1988) highlights the current crisis in the educational system of our nation by quoting the school dropout rates:
. American Indians/Alaskan Natives.......42.0%
. Hispanics..............................39.9%
. Blacks.................................24.7%
. Whites.................................14.3%
. Asians/Pacific Islanders............... 9.6%
Garza (1991) notes that in major cities of the United States, Hispanics "have significant drop-out rates--New York, 80 percent; Chicago, 70 percent; Miami, 32 percent... There is no paucity of data at this point to indicate that ethnic minorities have been virtually devastated by the educational system in this country. Thus, immigrant minorities as well as U.S. ethnic minorities are failing to acquire sufficient education to become productive individuals in our society... Current increases in non-White populations have changed the classrooms of the 1980s. Immigration from non-Western European countries is burgeoning. In the Los Angeles public schools, the proportion of immigrant students has more than doubled, to 16 percent since 1978. This figure is expected to grow 5 to 7 percent a year over the next decade. In the 1988-89 school year, for the first time, projections indicated more minority than Anglo students enrolled in California public schools."
"The nature of our population is changing. We are becoming more diverse--by the year 2000 one of every three New Yorkers will be what we call a "minority"... A shrinking world and a global economy compel attention to non-Western culture" (Sobol, 1991).
"New Zealand has the highest literacy rate in the world and Australia has one of the highest. In contrast, the United States has one of the lowes...