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Public Schools and the multiplicity of American life
This entry was posted on 1/2/2007 9:32 AM and is filed under Education.
I like the word ‘multiplicity’ instead of ‘diversity’. Diversity is a
code word for people who are either apologizing for being a true cross
section of America, or are trying to attract people to participate in
the American historical experience, which by the way, is one of
constant immigration. Immigration started here in north America with
those first Americans that migrated across the Bering Straits. It is
never ending, in constant flux and not as idealistic as we like to
portray it. Take for example our own state’s city of Dearborn, once the
un-melting pot of Ford workers, now the home of more than 250,000
Iraqis, Lebanese and others suffering from the human propensity not to
diversify. The Sunnis want Iraq for the Sunnis and the Shia want Iraq
for the Shia. The Israelis want only Israelis around the Temple. It is
an old, sad story. One wonders if those first Amerinds, crossing that
incredibly hostile ice bridge, were fleeing rather than looking for the
promised land. People tend to stay where they are until other people
make them move for a variety of usually sad reasons.
Where does education come into the picture? Much to the chagrin
of the political right wing, Public Education does something wonderful,
it gives people the abilities to survive and thrive and at the same
time keep their differences. Where else do history books talk about
slavery and Dr. King in the same pages? If you are different (and we
all are) because of where and whom you come from and yet you are a
literate, functioning citizen, i.e., an educated citizen of this great
country, then you are uniquely, successfully American. You have a
multiplicity of skills learned in public school that minimalizes the
disadvantages of coming from somewhere else. It is not diversity that
public schools add to this nation and our American culture, it is the
multiplicity of learning and ability to prosper. Again it is hard to
imagine this in any other countries except modern Europe that learned
some very hard lessons in the last century.
We see this all the time with amazement. We see people of diversity
doing multiple jobs. They ring cash registers and they clean airports;
they teach in universities and own business. We see, perhaps, their
skin color or hear their accents or native languages, but we miss their
multiple skills, the multiplicity of functioning in a place where they
are relatively new. Fennville Public Schools is a fine example of
diversity, but its best product is the multiplicity of its students.
Fennville Schools has literally produced jet pilots, politicians, web
designers, artists and automotive engineers, in short helped create the
multiple lives of economically and socially successful Americans. How
great is that?
Public schools teach multiplicity and enable all of us to be better
Americans and probably more importantly, better humans in our travels
through time and place.
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