Former Sen. John Edwards Participates in a Myspace/Mtv Presidential Candidate Forum

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Former Sen. John Edwards Participates in a Myspace/Mtv Presidential Candidate Forum

FORMER SEN. EDWARDS PARTICIPATES IN A MYSPACE/MTV PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FORUM

SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

SPEAKER: FORMER SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, D-N.C.

[*] QUESTION: My question -- it's a question and a comment. It's about secondary and post-secondary education and the diversity in school curriculums. I just feel at a point -- we're definitely at a point in this country where we're very Euro-centric in our school curriculums, but everybody in school is not European. And it's very kind of -- it's an under-representation and it's continuous. Even now that I'm in school, I mean, it's taken me forever to read feminists scholars, gay lesbian scholars, even African-American scholars, minority scholars.

And I guess I'm just wondering: Do you agree with the idea that it's time that we not only started to have these scholars represent in the classroom, but to integrate them into regular curriculums, not separate them into this special class?

And, if you do agree, what measures would you take as President of the United States if you were to win to make sure that integration happen and was possible for people?

EDWARDS: Well, first, thank you for the question. Very thoughtful question.

(APPLAUSE)

What you're describing, I have seen myself and I've seen with my own children who are in public school in North Carolina. And if you're me and you're a parent -- and I'm going to talk about being president in a minute -- but as a parent you want your children exposed to diversity.

You want them exposed to a range of diverse scholars and diverse text books and diverse academic work so that they have the kind of perspective on the world that is represented by that kind of diversity. And that means African-Americans scholars, Muslim scholars, Latin American scholars, all -- Asian scholars -- all should be represented in the curriculum.

Now, the president of the United States has some capacity -- well, first of all, I agree with your concept. The president of the United States -- but I have to be honest with you, the president of the United States does not run the public school system. And the president of the United States does not run colleges and universities. But there are incentives that the president can help create.

For example, if we provide additional funding, financial incentives to both the public schools and to colleges and universities in the -- as the reward for being willing to diversify their studies, to diversify the kinds of scholars that participate, to diversify exposure to all kinds of academic scholars, scholarship and textbooks, then we, as a nation say, "We're going to help you do that."

EDWARDS: In other words, we're not going to just leave it to the local schools and to the state colleges and universities, but America's going to actually be willing to create financial incentives for schools and universities to do that.

What I believe, at the end of the day, is I think what's happened in America is, the rest of ...

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