EDITH KURZWEIL
9
terms of a left/right confrontation rather than in the cooperation I -
somewhat too idealistically - had envisioned when planning our confer–
ence. For I had thought that the collapse of communism might bring
with it the collapse of false dichotomies - among these the recognition
that to improve our educational system we would have to give up, or at
least alter, our political and pseudo-political agendas. Instead, entrenched
interest groups and the concomitant enmities continue to determine the
scope of the discussions, claiming to speak for constituencies who don't
always understand that the rhetoric of their advocates is mostly self–
serving and may even be counterproductive. For instance, by rewriting
history from a multicultural perspective (by now this term refers to
African culture alone), we not only will be creating jobs for African
American historians and their advocates, but for all the book publishers
and sellers (on both the right and the left). And we are setting the stage
for the creation of thousands of university committees and conferences.
Actually, this is happening already, and not only among historians.
Again, I must reiterate that I am neither against preserving and cel–
ebrating every heritage nor against bolstering the self-esteem of every stu–
dent. But I do assume that children learn about their own traditions at
home and in their communities and about those of others in school -
from classmates and teachers. Originally, affirmative action was to help
this process: it started to be questioned only after it was noticed that
Asian and other emigrants continued to integrate without the benefit of
preferential treatment or quotas (again, what we call this depends upon
our political stance). The historians' battle over the American heritage
overlooks, among other things, the fact that whatever kind of history is
being taught - be it by advocates of the old or the new historicisms, by
those who claim that European civilization started in Central Africa, or
in Egypt, or in some as-yet unexplored tribal society - it must be learned
by students who have no problems in reading and writing essays and
generally have a certain respect for learning, and even for those who
know enough to teach. Privately, even my friends on the far left agree
with me. But they don't like to call remedial work "remedial work,"
and instead they speak of offering "academic foundations," "retention
programs," "windows of opportunity," and so on. I would not object,
except for the fact that when aired in the media, these euphemisms again
blur the difficulties and the complexities.
So far as I know, no one wants to have a divided society, and ev–
eryone recognizes the need to eliminate our underclass: remedial pro–
grams mandated by Congress and state legislatures - however badly
worded or implemented - testify to this. But even the most well-mean–
ing and dedicated legislators and academics tend not to call things by
their names. A number of black leaders now are advocating help for
