Gordon says that “the problems of proper housing and living, moral and sanitary conditions, honest and decent government, and proper education have everywhere been made more difficult by their presence. Everywhere these people tend to settle in groups or settlements, and to set up here in their national manners, customs, and observances. Our task is to break up these groups or settlements, to assimilate and amalgamate these people as a part of our America race, and to implant in their children, so far as can be done, the Anglo-Saxon conception of righteousness, law and order, and popular government, and to awaken in them a reverence for our democratic institutions and for those things in our national life which we as a people hold to be of abiding worth.” Basically, he says that the immigrants’ cultures and customs should be abandoned and replaced with the American equivalents. Although Gordon wrote this piece in 1964, the ideas that he puts forth still survive to this day, although it is in very little amounts.
I immigrated from South Korea to America when I was five years old. I started Kindergarten right away, and quickly learned English. However, I was torn between two worlds at a young age. At home, I was not allowed to speak English because my parents feared that I would forget my native language, Korean. At school, I had to act more “American” so that my friends would not think of me as an alien. To this day, I am still torn between two worlds. I have never watched Mean Girls, High School Musical, or more than 10 episodes of Spongebob Squarepants. When I reveal this fact to my friends, they all exclaim “Where was your childhood?”. At home, it is difficult talking to my parents about American ways of life, such as the education system for the Korean education is so different from the American one. Although it is difficult living between two worlds, I also think of it as grasping both worlds in my hands. I can go between the two realms freely, and experience the best and worst of both worlds.
