What Do We Have In Common?

"What the curriculum report tried to do was show how this concern with cultural diversity has been misinterpreted. We have viewed it as a matter of helping people to learn more about themselves and others. The primary reason youngsters need to study multiple cultures is to learn how to develop multiple perspectives. This capacity is essential to developing intelligence. We have, I hope, elevated the question from a political debate concerning whose history to teach to the question of how to enable youngsters to use broad, often conflicting bodies of information to arrive at sound judgments."

-- EDMUND GORDON, YALE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK STATE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE

"We have a history of treasuring our sameness, but we should also respect our diversity. Our histories should allow all students and teachers to feel like first-class citizens. A U.S. history that only stresses a westward movement across the continent would marginalize or exclude Native Americans. It would make African Americans ask, 'Who booked my passage?' It would make Hispanics say, 'We stood still and the border moved to the other side of us.' And it would make Asian Americans wonder, 'What about eastward movement rather than westward movement?' "

-- RENATO ROSALDO, STANFORD UNIVERSITY ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR

"It would be just 30 years ago that Nathan Glazer and I finished Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City. There were then two dominant expectations about ethnicity in America. The 'liberal expectancy' suggested a fading of differences into a common civic culture. The Marxist expectation was that class would obliterate background distinctions of every kind. Glazer and I argued that ethnic attachments would grow more, not less, pronounced. It may help to know that the present tumult was anticipated. It may also help to know -- and teach -- how much the cast of characters changes. A century ago in New York, the Irish would have felt themselves the most aggrieved group. Such tensions have long since faded."

-- DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN, U.S. SENATOR

"The fundamentals of American history need not be threatened as we expand to cover other important elements, such as the contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics. For example, in telling of building the transcontinental railroad, the contributions of Irish and Chinese laborers were for many years ignored. The Asian contributions to early California agriculture are very seldom mentioned. Some people may fear that more attention on minority groups may have the effect of dividing people. But in a complex society, there are many different elements, and we should view this as a unique opportunity to build strength for the whole."

-- CHANG-LIN TIEN, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

"Unity is the completed puzzle, diversity the pieces of the puzzle. And until we recognize every piece, we cannot have true unity. That's the debate that's going on today, or that is where the debate should be aimed. By acknowledging the contributions made to our country by Native Americans, and by Hispanics and blacks and Asians, we're really strengthening our unity. As we look to the future of America, we have to rewrite our history so that we acknowledge those contributions and don't ignore the unpleasant experiences, the cruelties and aggressions. Manifest destiny, in a positive perspective, means individuals seeing endless opportunities. But there is also the negative side of manifest destiny, which is aggression and achieving goals at the expense of others. That less-than-glorious background has to be acknowledged and recognized. Why? Because we can no longer be defined by how the white Anglo majority wants to see us -- as stereotypes."

-- ANTONIA HERNANDEZ, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, MEXICAN-AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

"The reason we don't have the problem that countries like Yugoslavia are having now is that all groups except African Americans have come here voluntarily. And all those cultures deserve to be included in our definition of American. I'm not talking about cultural cheerleading. We have got to teach children that all cultures have value. Yes, we have to talk about the Founding Fathers -- but we also have to talk about women's role, African Americans' role. This was not just white Anglo-Saxons who fought in the Revolution; it was Americans of all races, colors and creeds. We're not putting down anybody. Instead of a spotlight on one group, we want a floodlight on many cultures."

-- JOHN PAUL BIANCHI, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR AND MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK STATE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE

"What we have in common as Americans is a political and social tradition that has created a unique degree of freedom in action and conscience; a society more open to newcomers than any so far known. American law and custom have blended diverse groups more successfully than any other community. Further, we have in common a system that -- for all its serious flaws and < injustices -- has shown an unprecedented ability to correct itself. Certainly we must become more aware of other cultures and their contributions. But the top priority should be to equip children for life in the modern world, to preserve and expand the unity America needs to function better, for the sake of all, and to avoid the destructive effects of intellectual tribalism."

-- HENRY GRUNWALD, FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF TIME INC.

"What we have in common, first, is a splendid continent full of natural resources. Then we have a history of a network of relations among us. Those have been unpleasant as well as pleasant, but unhappy memories too can be a source of unity. We have the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We have a future in common, which means a great deal. And we have denim jeans. That's a shared loyalty, from the Indians to the yuppies. As for the teaching of history, you have a choice for your children. You can tell them the truth about their country's past, favorable and unfavorable. Or you can indulge a fantasy belonging to the white male minority."

-- PATRICIA LIMERICK, HISTORIAN, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

"History should not teach a kind of uniform identity or a commonality of American culture. So much of American history really does involve struggle and conflict and different groups trying to come to terms with one another. I think it tells us that the melting pot has not served the function of melting people into a kind of common identity so much as the fact that people still retain their own senses of identity. It's easy for teachers to look for easily teachable generalizations for students. But what history tells us more than anything else is how complex our experiences have been."

-- CLARA SUE KIDWELL, HISTORIAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

"One of the proudest things we have in our tradition is pluralism. Separation of church and state, which lays the groundwork for this tolerance of diversity, is a peculiarly American concept. The battle about what to teach is over. America has always been a study of different cultures operating on one continent. You have the French colonial exercise in Canada, the British colonial exercise here, and the Spanish colonials in the lower part of the hemisphere. What's happening now is that things that have been accepted in academic history are filtering down into the elementary schools and have become part of a political fight."

-- GARRY WILLS, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR

"Teaching that America is a melting pot of all kinds of cultures takes care of each culture. I'm from the Mississippi Delta, which God knows is the melting pot of melting pots, but we thought of ourselves as having the purest American blood. There were Chinese, Syrians, Italians, Jews from all over doing their best to appear to be native-born Americans. That's changed a lot. Now they realize the value of what they've been trying to shed. It should always be kept in mind that we are a diverse strand of peoples. But to break it down into what the Hungarians contributed, what the Russians contributed, the English, Irish and Germans contributed, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Are you willing to dilute the pure stream of history in order to investigate all the creeks that run into it?"

-- SHELBY FOOTE, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN