According to the The Associated Press, Vice President Richard Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney told the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture that she questioned the value of emphasizing multicultural education in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Cheney said that calling for an added emphasis on multiculturalism suggests “that it was our failure to understand Islam that led to so many deaths and so much destruction.”
“If there were one aspect of schooling from kindergarten through college to which I would give added emphasis today, it would be American history,” she also added.
Cheney’s statements reflect a confused assessment both of current events and of the benefits of multicultural studies. What exactly she feels we could gain from giving greater weight to the study of American history is unclear. But she is clear that, in her view, the value of multicultural studies has decreased due to last month’s attacks.
Cheney seems to imply that American history and multicultural studies exist in some sort of mutually-exclusive vacuum. To give greater emphasis to American history is to de-emphasize multicultural education. Cheney forgets that the United States is an incredibly diverse society that cannot be fully understood without discussing the influence of a variety of different cultures.
Additionally, while it might be true that a greater understanding of Islam would not have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks, it almost seems to downgrade the importance of teaching Islam in school at all. Simply because studying Islam wouldn’t have prevented a horiffic terrorist attack is itself a poor reason not to study the religion.
More importantly, Cheney’s comments are simply in poor taste. Offering up highly-publicized comments that downgrade the importance of Islam might help to affirm a growing belief among Americans that Islam is the real enemy. What’s worse, the comments come from the wife of a high-profile U.S. figure which makes the U.S. government?perhaps against its wishes?seem supportive of these views.
We should not discount the benefits of a multicultural education so quickly. Perhaps it couldn’t have prevented Sept. 11, but it certainly has an important place in America’s teaching curriculum.
