Americanization Essay Research Paper AmericanizationWhat does it

Americanization Essay, Research Paper

.Americanization.

What does it mean to be a true American. This question has been asked many times when it comes to the topic of immigration. Americanization in itself is a mysterious aspect of our society. In the world today, everyone has his or her own identity but not everyone is accepted or considered American because he or she might stray from the American way. If the term un-American means someone who does not have the characteristics of or who is not constant with American customs, principles, or traditions, then how do we define an American. The controversy has interested many in the past 20 years. If a native born American is not consistent with American customs, principles, or traditions, can we then call that person un-American even if he or she was born in the U.S.A. And who defines American customs and traditions. These are all questions that many tried to answer and that many theories are created about. So what is the definition of Americanization.

The first article, published in The Clearing House magazine in January 1999 by E.D. Hirsch Jr., called .Americanization and the Schools., talks about the Americanization of children. This article looks at the negative aspects of bilingual education of children. E.D. Hirsch Jr., talks about how bilingual education is only hurting the children and in effect is hurting the rest of the country. He calls the children .victims. of curricular incoherence. Also the article states that the parents are just as much to blame as the schools. The article basically tries to deliver the message that Americanization is badly needed in our country today.

The second article published in the National Review on September 2, 1996 called .Anti-Americanization. by John D. Fonte, talks about the need for Americanization but from a different point of view. Here the article only states what actions have been taken by the U.S. government under the Clinton administration to encourage bilingual education and to downplay assimilation. Also John D. Fonte talks about the problems that have been caused by bilingual education. Also he talks about the process of becoming a U.S citizen and how this process today has altered because of the Americanization controversy.

The third article published in The Journal of American Culture in the

Spring of 1997, is called .Ford.s Sociology Department and the Americanization

Campaign and the Manufacture of Popular Culture among Assembly Line

Workers. by Clarence Hooker. In this article Hooker explains the reasoning

behind Ford.s profit-sharing plan and the affect it had on Ford.s workers. Also

this article contains information about the details that were important to Ford and

why. Hooker, in addition to all the other information on Ford, including information

about similar establishments like Ford.s and how they were influenced by Ford.s

actions.

The article by John Fonte says that the goal of Americanization is to teach

immigrants English and to make them Americans. This is the basic definition that most people have in mind when the term Americanization is used. In Clarence Hooker.s article the term is defined by what Ford thought it meant. This definition was that Americanization is changing the way you live. Included in the definition are living conditions of the immigrants and the education that they and their children receive. And the article by Hirsch defines Americanization as a good English education. All of these articles define Americanization differently but the one thing that they have in common is that they all show that no one really knows what it means. Some describe Americanization as just a survival assimilation that all immigrants go through and other describe it as becoming .all-American..

The term .all-American. itself is defined by Webster.s dictionary as .someone who is a quarterback in football, on a basketball team, composed of wholly American elements, representative or typical of the U.S. or its ideals, and of or relating to the American nations as a group.. This definition in itself is not a clear or realistic picture of how people live in the world today. This definition mentions American elements but no one knows what those elements are. Ford had his own ideas about what those elements are and the government also has a different opinion on who is the .all-American.. So how can someone go through the process people call .Americanization. and become .all-Americans. when know one knows what that is.

When immigrants come to America, they realize that they will live a different life style than they did back home. They knew that their first priority is to learn English. This is the process of Americanization, learning the language and being able to live and function in the new home. Now this process got complicated because certain people had their own extreme ideas. For example how the government feels that .Americanization. is taking away the cultural intelligence that immigrants have. The government is actually promoting bilingual education thinking that this will benefit the immigrants and the U.S. as a whole (Fonte). It is interesting that the government thinks that if they get rid of .Americanization. and doing things the .American. way, then cultural intelligence will be preserved. Also the school sys

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать