<p>If there is anything that Americans are good at, it is celebration of our own wonderfulness. I don’t know if we need even more of that in school.</p>
<p>You must live in a different America than I do.
From where I sit I see celebration/ condemnation of numbers as they relate to test scores, class size, income, shareholders, etc and not a lot of attention to what matters to us as people, as a culture, as a species.
Not everything that counts can be measured and not everything that can be measured counts.</p>
<h1>256 Not sure if that listing is accurate. One example, UT-Dallas website says its student body is 21% international. I’d guess there are others not included on that list.</h1>
<p>“It was often extremely eye-opening to discuss world events with these classmates, because they almost invariably supplied a perspective that differed from my own. It made me realize that the “American perspective” might not be the only legitimate one when it came to certain issues, and the notion of America-as-the-center-of-the-universe, might be just a tad bit myopic. Often conversations with international students and recent immigrants stretched my thinking, and shook up my assumptions.”</p>
<p>^This.</p>
<p>Also, one thing to keep in mind is that there is a difference between institutions that are recruiting international students purely for funding reasons, since most of then are full payers, and institutions that are able to recruit the cr</p>
<p>@ARobot, I am only reporting what I have observed in person in the classroom and in the non-Western countries I have worked. What have you observed in person overseas on the issue?</p>
<p>I have first-hand interaction with foreigners, both here in the U.S. and abroad. </p>
<p>I reread your post and I saw you qualified as non-Western individuals. My initial impression was an overall generalization about folks from all other countries. Sorry I misread your post. I do agree that some non-Western individuals speak less than Americans do.</p>
<p>Anyway, let me say that I interacted with folks from Hungary, Turkey, and Armenia who were very outspoken. Here in the U.S. I also interacted with quite a few folks from African countries who were also very engaging and outspoken. No need to say that folks from other Western countries, such as Italy and Argentina, do talk a lot.</p>
<p>I don’t want to veer too far into politics, but I think objections to “multiculturalism” are often really an objection to some specific things, like immigration policy or affirmative action. Does anybody really object to an elementary school class observing Chinese New Year? That’s what I think most multiculturalism really is.</p>
<p>Plus, I can’t resist responding to this:
So far the only influence the suspect has identified that led him there was US government war policy. So I suspose it’s fair game to consider that as well?</p>
<p>I think multiple issues flow here. We are a multicultural country and have been. Most of us can identify, even vaguely, our families’ origins. So I have to wonder how much of this is about specific groups. Or the assimilation process, the time it takes.</p>
<p>Of course we need to celebrate what “makes” us American. But that IS a mix of subcultures. Multiple practices, perspectives, experiences, traditions and preferences. No one “right way.”. You can’t pretend otherwise. </p>
<p>Done well, awareness works. It can promote our sense of unity.<br>
Xposted.</p>
<p>I assume so, since we use the same calendar.</p>
<p>January 1 is an American federal holiday. Chinese New Year is not an American federal holiday. If January 1 has no unique significance to the American people, then they ought to be going to work that day!</p>
<p>@Bay,
Not very multi-cultural of you… I was ribbing you about referring to it as “American” New Year. It’s actually the Gregorian calendar new year.</p>
<p>Ok, got it, sorry GMT, I’m a little slow with internet humor sometimes when I can’t hear inflections and have trouble interpreting the little faces. :)</p>
<p>I think Bay’s point about American New Year suggests something: that people feel that “American” holidays and history are being neglected in favor of “foreign” ones. I don’t really see this as a reality, because I think American holidays get plenty of attention.</p>
<p>I also think there is a fine line between patriotism and exceptionalism, which is also a factor in these discussions.</p>
<p>I see it more as an issue of nationalism. Do we as Americans have a unique identity and culture that we all share? Or are we just a conglomeration of other cultures?</p>
I think one thing that multiculturalism reveals is that a significant part of what we think of as the “unique identity and culture” of America is an illusion, because it’s the identify and culture of white, English-speaking, Protestant Americans–there have always been plenty of real Americans who didn’t fully share in that culture.</p>
<p>Can you provide some specific examples of this, Hunt?</p>
<p>What I think of when I think of American culture is freedom, equality, capitalism, ambition, democracy, self-confidence and hard work. Big cars, big houses, TVs and rock music. Other than that, I don’t think I even know what American culture is anymore. Those are not white, English-speaking, Protestant things to me.</p>
I think those things are values, not culture. And most of them–all of them–are not particularly American, in my opinion. I guess it’s American to think that other nations don’t share these values, but plenty of them do. What’s more, I think many immigrants embody those values just as well, if not better, than others do.</p>
<p>What I’m talking about is the idea that mainstream, white, Protestant culture is what American culture is–such as celebrating Christmas, enjoying football, American movies and TV (in English), and the like. There have always been groups that were not part of this mainstream, and they were marginalized. Now, those groups are larger, and aren’t as interested in assimilating fully into the mainstream culture, and this is disorienting to people in the old mainstream. What’s with all these people wanting to play soccer? What’s with Kwanzaa? What’s with all these Spanish-language channels on my Cable TV? Why are my kids listening to Korean pop music?</p>
<p>I think the younger generation takes all this in stride, but it’s harder for those who grew up thinking everybody was watching Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson. As for baseball, I sometimes joke that all applicants for US citizenship should have to explain the infield fly rule.</p>
JK</p>