While reading the chapter entitled “Migration, Citizenship, and Education,” Stephen Castles’ defining aspects of globalization challenges my earlier beliefs of the United States’ proud ‘melting-pot’ imagery. He differentiates between four ‘ideal-types’ to explain the inclusions of immigrants into a nation-state. These theories range from differential exclusion, which seeks to limit an immigrant’s participation within the nation state to transnationalism, which can include anyone from a multi-national business to the Jewish Diaspora. Castles’ exploration of the ideal Assimilation emerges as a direct contrast to earlier beliefs I have had about US’s culture. I had always been taught that America’s culture was rich with variety. Each different nationality or culture group adds to the great ‘melting pot.’ Castle, however, stresses that perhaps the pot melts a bit too much. In having immigrants assimilate, we allow them to lose a sense of who they are, for one’s past is imperative to understand in pursuing one’s education. Perhaps we should now regard the United States as stew rather than a ‘melting pot,’ in order to preserve the taste of each cultural group.
There were several topics raised in Chapter 8 of Gutek that caught my attention. The two of King's idioms discussed were of great interest to me. Despite growing up in a lower middle class home, it wasn't until sixth grade that I realized that you had the option of NOT going to college. It was then that the friends I had grown up with were divided into two distinct groups. I was in the college track while many friends were sent off to technology studies. This continued though high school as I took AP classes while they went to the community college down the road and became more than well equipped to enter the work force. Some of them were even employed before they graduated. This is a clear example of King's assertion that those who follow the Industrial-Technological Idiom become familiar with the "hidden curriculum" that makes them more employable. During the summers they were the ones who had the resume to obtain the higher paying jobs while my in depth knowledge of Beowolf impressed no one at Ace Hardware. The "Tracking" debate is a hot topic at the moment. The present economy has critics leaning towards more practical, vocational educations. It will be interesting to see if we really are "in the early stages of a new idiom related to the rise of the postmodern, postindustrial society."
While reading the chapter entitled “Migration, Citizenship, and Education,” Stephen Castles’ defining aspects of globalization challenges my earlier beliefs of the United States’ proud ‘melting-pot’ imagery. He differentiates between four ‘ideal-types’ to explain the inclusions of immigrants into a nation-state. These theories range from differential exclusion, which seeks to limit an immigrant’s participation within the nation state to transnationalism, which can include anyone from a multi-national business to the Jewish Diaspora. Castles’ exploration of the ideal Assimilation emerges as a direct contrast to earlier beliefs I have had about US’s culture. I had always been taught that America’s culture was rich with variety. Each different nationality or culture group adds to the great ‘melting pot.’ Castle, however, stresses that perhaps the pot melts a bit too much. In having immigrants assimilate, we allow them to lose a sense of who they are, for one’s past is imperative to understand in pursuing one’s education. Perhaps we should now regard the United States as stew rather than a ‘melting pot,’ in order to preserve the taste of each cultural group.
ReplyDeleteThere were several topics raised in Chapter 8 of Gutek that caught my attention. The two of King's idioms discussed were of great interest to me. Despite growing up in a lower middle class home, it wasn't until sixth grade that I realized that you had the option of NOT going to college. It was then that the friends I had grown up with were divided into two distinct groups. I was in the college track while many friends were sent off to technology studies. This continued though high school as I took AP classes while they went to the community college down the road and became more than well equipped to enter the work force. Some of them were even employed before they graduated. This is a clear example of King's assertion that those who follow the Industrial-Technological Idiom become familiar with the "hidden curriculum" that makes them more employable. During the summers they were the ones who had the resume to obtain the higher paying jobs while my in depth knowledge of Beowolf impressed no one at Ace Hardware.
ReplyDeleteThe "Tracking" debate is a hot topic at the moment. The present economy has critics leaning towards more practical, vocational educations. It will be interesting to see if we really are "in the early stages of a new idiom related to the rise of the postmodern, postindustrial society."