This paper attempts to uncover a new educational impact through the politics of identity and multiculturalism by arguing that is necessary to equip the young with an understanding of how powerful categories - such as culture, race and nation - have been constructed. It is based on the philosophical position of Simone Weil, which defends the need of roots in order to establish the importance of learning to judge ethical qualities of the category of identify. It then turns this position against the shortcomings of Charles Taylor's politics of recognition, in its attempt to reconcile liberal individualism with collective rights. Proceeding into the arena of public policy, the paper applies these philosophical perspectives to the multicultural and anti-racist initiatives of two Canadian provincial Ministries of Education. Finally, it reviews the impassioned critiques of multiculturalism by Neil Bissoondath and Arthur Schlesinger, exposing the currents of ethic nationalism, wich underwrite their position. As obscure as it can be the educational priority given to the discovery of the political process, including schooling itself, it gives public weight and personal significance to important points of identity.
MULTICULTURALISM; IDENTITY; CULTURE; RACE