ABSTRACT
In the previous article, Ken Donelson began the process of curriculum building by asking us to consider what great works we would consider to be essential reading in secondary schools. The result of that exercise was a list which, though it has some unusual features, would be considered very traditional in some quarters. Now Sandra Stotsky examines the value of a multiethnic and multicultural curriculum. Confining herself to American literature, Stotsky begins with the basics—that is, with definitions and goals—and then proceeds to examine some of the more difficult aspects of the canon debate: how various stereotypes get represented, often unconsciously, in the curriculum; whose traditions should be included; how regionalism becomes a factor; and how the selection of texts relates to censorship.
