As our society moves to correct injustices by crafting worldviews through which to examine the present by re-examining the past, the multifaceted issue of multiculturalism comes into focus. How should divergent perspectives consider the issue as they seek to effect societal change? To make conversations centered on societal change beneficial, the conversation must begin with a definition of terms, for should interlocutors agree on what the thing is, they may hope to address its redress.

Since the inception of compulsory education laws in the late 1800s, and the ensuing immigration waves of the following centuries (Findlaw, 2016), our public schools have grown increasingly diverse, driving the need for pedagogical and interpersonal innovations. As societal norms have changed, so must public school instruction, if it is to be effective.

What ethic should drive the conversation? Unity. And while unity is found in Christ as all things converge in him (Colossians 1:16-16), not all voices confess him (1 John 2:23); thus, without Christ at its center, the center will not hold (Yeats, 1919). Consider Yeats’ prophetic words:

The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

If untethered from unity in Christ, human cultures will be battered by competing interests and rooted in laws written from man-centered, pride-filled perspectives. Any secular redress or innovation will flicker with the initial light of hope, then falter, then dim due to its rootedness in the grand plans of man. “Why bother getting involved in the conversation?” the Christian may ask. Scripture provides the answer: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Proverbs 19:21). Christians participate in the secular conversation because they perceive God’s sovereignty and know that when any plan, whether of human or divine origin, is wrought by the hands and feet of Christ’s people, that plan can transform teachers, parents, and children, even as His own wait for his second
coming.