be Hispanic or black, and as many as 75 percent can be white.rnBut according to the web site, “Instruction at the kindergartenrnlevel will be mostly in Spanish (90% of the time). As a studentrnprogresses through the grade levels, the amount of instructionalrntime in Spanish and English will equal 50/50.” The purposernof the two-way language immersion program, therefore, is tornforce the Spanish language—and more importantly, Hispanicrnculture—on non-Spanish speaking white children.rnHispanic activists in Rockford don’t hide their intentions.rnAndy Campos, a vocal advocate of the court order, argued thatrnthe Mexican national anthem should be played at the groundbreakingrnof Barbour School because “we once controlled thisrncountry.” He got his wish. Campos, while briefly in the runningrnfor a school board seat, also claimed that all six of his childrenrnhad dropped out of school because of discrimination. Inrna column in the local Gannett paper, another Hispanic activist,rnRichard Vargas, concerned that Rockford’s desegregation suitrnmight soon come to an end, urged fellow Hispanics: “Cet busy!rnApply for any and all programs you can. Get them in writingrn. . . get them written in stone. Do whatever is necessary to makernsure they can’t be retracted once the courts turn the schoolsrnback to the school board.” He argued that he had been discriminatedrnagainst in the Rockford public schools, not by beingrndeprived of a good education, but by being placed in the top educationalrntrack. “My peer group immediately realized we werernon the top of the I.Q. scale. We developed an elitist attitude,rnbecame intellectually arrogant. [We] actually felt superior andrnlooked upon all the other students as inferior,” Vargas wrote. Atrna Chronicles forum on multiculturalism, Vargas had also complainedrnthat he, “as a Native American,” had been discriminatedrnagainst because the public schools didn’t instruct him in hisrn”native language.” Which Native American language mightrnthat be? Why, Spanish, of course.rnBut Rockford is not alone. While bilingual programs are failingrnall around the country, and poll after poll indicates that Hispanicsrndon’t want their children in bilingual programs, the educationalrnestablishment and the federal government push thernmulticultural agenda in an effort to re-educate whites. Multiculturalists’rnpublications make their intentions plain. Routledgernpublishes a series of books on multicultural educationrnunder the title, “Transforming Teaching Series,” while thernState University of New York features books such as MulticulturalrnEducation as Social Activism in its “Social Context of Education”rnseries, and Beyond Black and White: New Faces andrnVoices in U.S. Schools in its “Power, Social Identity, and Education”rnseries. The titles of recent books reflect their revolutionaryrnintent: Infusion of African and African American Contentrnin the School Curriculum; Education Reform and SocialrnChange: Multicultural Voices, Struggles, and Visions; SchoolingrnYoung Children: A Feminist Pedagogy for Liberatory Learning.rnThe card catalog description for Revolutionary Multiculturalisms:rnPedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium describesrnauthor Peter McLaren as “one of North America’s leading educationalrntheorists,” and goes on to say that “McLaren arguesrnthat the central project ahead in the struggle for social justice isrnnot so much the politics of diversity as the global decenteringrnand dismantiing of whiteness.” As in Rockford, multiculturalistrnefforts nationwide are focused on the youngest of the young:rnBuilding Bridges with Multicultural Picture Books: For Childrenrn3-5; Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective;rnDiversity in the Classroom: New Approaches to the Education ofrnthe Young (part of the “Early Childhood Education Series”).rnThe one-word titie of a 1991 book by Maureen Cech sums uprnthe multiculturalist project: Glohalchild.rnWhat can be done? To say that America stands at a crossroads,rnwith one fork leading to Europe and one to arnglobal Third World culture would be incorrect. Americarnreached that crossroads in the early years of this century, and byrnchoosing to extirpate European national identities amongrnAmericans, our rulers chose the fork leading to the ThirdrnWorld. If we desire to revitalize our educational system and tornreaffirm America’s status as a European country, we must, likernthe Prodigal Son, acknowledge our error (and our bankruptcy)rnand return home. The standard neoconservative “solutions”rnadvanced by Allan Bloom and Bill Bennett—”Great Books,” arnnational core curriculum, an emphasis on assimilating immigrantsrn—won’t work; these were, in fact, among the tools used tornsubvert the older educational system and to place us on our currentrnpath. Instead, we need to recover what elements we can ofrnthe former system that served America so well.rnCentral among those elements is the study of Latin. Latin isrnthe language of European civilization, an indispensable aid forrnunderstanding European cultiire and learning other Europeanrnlanguages (like Spanish and English). Early instruction inrnLatin and Latin literature can satisfy the natural curiosity ofrnstudents for something “different,” and refocus their attentionsrnon their civilization, rather than on that of the Third World.rnWhile English should be the language of instruction in publicrnschools (and the government—both state and federalshouldrnleave private schools alone), it is reasonable to expectrnthat local schools will offer languages and cultural stiidies thatrnreflect the heritage of those who attend them. If Rockford everrnshakes off federal control and returns to a neighborhood schoolrnsystem, there is no reason why schools in ethnic neighborhoodsrnshouldn’t become centers of their particular European-Americanrnculture. With the schools leading the way, Rockford couldrnsee a revitalization of Swedish-, German-, and Italian-Americanrnculture that could help Rockfordians effectively resist both thernmulticulturalist agenda and the bland pseudo-culture of Hollywood,rnNew York, and the “global economy.”rnRefocusing American education on our European rootsrnwould not be enough, however, to counter the propaganda ofrnthe past two generations. We need, first of all, to return tornAmerica’s pre-1965 immigration policy, with its national originsrnsystem. Latin Americans are a special case, both becausernthey account for the largest share of immigration and becausernwe share a common history, as well as a border, with Mexico.rnMexicans and other Latinos are faced with a choice: either theyrnare our cultural cousins (by way of Spain) whose heritage is tornbe celebrated, or else they are irredentist Native Americans, determinedrnto play the minority rights game. Hispanic politicalrnactivism that takes its cue from foreign countries and attemptsrnto undermine America’s sovereignty and national identity is thernequivalent of a declaration of war.rnMulticulturalism is a fable, as is any American nationalismrnthat hies to deny or eradicate the European and regional culturesrnthat once made America strong. If America is to have a futiirernas a nation, and not simply as a geographical region, thenrnwe must allow Anglo-American culture to bind Northern andrnSouthern, Western and Central and Eastern European communitiesrnin the United States in a revitalized American civilization.rnIt is time for the Prodigal Son to grow up, and to returnrnhome. ‘^rn22/CHRONICLESrnrnrn