ABSTRACT
Over the past generation, our world has rapidly grown smaller as more and more people and ideas appear to share it. In The Shrinking City, author Law rence Fixel (1991) remarked on the changes many Americans felt:
It is time to acknowledge openly what has already been verified by a number of independent sources: our city is shrinking! And this in spite of all efforts, . . . to further various “expansion” programs. These include raising the permissible height for new structures, as well as extending the city limits. . . . As for the reaction of our citizens, it is varied. Some still insist nothing has changed. (Fixel, 1991, p. 45)
Our city is indeed shrinking, and to insist that nothing has changed will do little good. The same is true at all levels of society above and below the city, from the entire world down to a single neighborhood or schoolroom. More over, as populations grow and move from place to place, people now share
space with those who look, speak, or act differently-that is, with other cul tures or races. Nowhere is this situation more obvious than in schools, espe cially in areas with a large number of recent immigrants.
