Americans All, Immigrants AllUnited States. Office of Education
History
Americans All, Immigrants All
United States. Office of Education
Acculturation -- United States; Americanization; Immigrants -- United States -- History; Radio in education
Carefully controlled intelligence tests given by educators and scientists
to different racial groups show that, where environment and social
conditions are the same, no group can claim mental superiority. In
fact, it has been clearly apparent that “man, everywhere, is basically
and fundamentally similar” and that his differences, be they physical,
mental, or moral, are determined not by race so much as by the social
conditions and opportunities around him.
_Important Findings_
The assimilation of different groups within the United States would seem
to show that:
=_1. Under favorable conditions of equal opportunity, all racial groups,
whatever their original homeland conditions and status, are capable of
rapid social change both as individuals and as groups._=
“It can easily be shown,” says one scientist, “how dependent mental
differences are upon social conditions. For instance, exact observations
have been made on Negroes who have moved from the country to the city and
it has been shown that assimilation of these people to the behavior of
the city population takes place within a few years.
“Likewise, it has been shown in the case of Italian immigrants that they
grow to resemble the Americans in behavior the longer they have been
in this country, provided they do not remain isolated. One of the most
instructive illustrations of this assimilation is the ease with which
children adopt the dialect and manner of expression of their environment.”
=_2. All groups, under the stimulus of opportunity and contact, have
capacity to produce exceptional individuals of high creative ability or
genius and thus help build up and perfect human culture._=
The Nordic and Slav, the southern European and Jew, black, white, brown,
and yellow have all produced men and women of outstanding brains and
genius. To confirm these statements it is only necessary to read, in the
pages that follow, the contributions of the immigrant and his descendants
to American life.
Research studies, conducted on an objective basis, prove that individual
brilliance may be and is, found in all groups.
=_3. Under the influence of a common environment, physical and cultural,
the offspring of different racial and national groups in a democracy tend
toward a common culture with common customs and ideals._=
John Dewey has emphasized that, “in a democratic society, individuals
give freely to others of the peculiar value, essence, quality, and
contribution of the group to which they belong, and receive freely the
corresponding treasures of other groups, and this without violence to the
complete uniqueness of the group.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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