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