Multicultural education in the little red schoolhouse: A rhetorical exploration of ideological justification and mythic repair

Abstract

The “Little Red Schoolhouse” is a powerful cultural tale of American education. This myth brings together the often paradoxical themes of democracy, morality, and community that define the nation's public education legacy. Yet, modern intellectual developments have repudiated the epistemotogical and pedagogical assumptions of the story. Nonetheless, the various themes of the Little Red Schoolhouse continue to influence the debate over multicultural education and what it means to be an American. This essay analyzes the general rhetorical relationship among myth, ideology, and discourse and the particular ideological perplexity wrought by contemporary multiculturalism in the mythic Little Red Schoolhouse.