This paper explores how multicultural education via the curriculum can enable schools to educate rather than school the student. Multicultural education assumes that: (1) ethnicity and culture are salient parts of U.S. life; (2) ethnic diversity is a positive element in a society because it enriches a nation and increases the ways in which its citizens can perceive and solve personal and public problems; (3) to create educational reform, major changes are needed in the educational system; (4) individuals who only see the world from their unique cultural and ethnic perspective are denied important parts of the human experience; (5) a monocultural educational approach is presently in operation in U.S. schools; (6) multicultural education is needed as much, if not more, by an Anglo-American middle income suburban child as it is by a Mexican American child who lives in the barrio; and (7) the concern is with modifying the total content of education and the educational environment so they are more truly reflective of the diversity within and outside of the United States. To date no significant, comprehensive studies compare and contrast students who experience multicultural education with those who do not. There is a shortage of both quantitative and qualitative data to support either proponents or opponents of multiculturalism. The paper conducts a theoretical discussion of the issue based on research. (Contains 29 references.) (EH)