Valerie, you are onto something there with the present God of Multiculturism. It is a very predatory entity. Instead of enabling the absorption of best elements of introduced social norms into society, it equally fosters the adoption of the worst; breathing life into old divisions and hatreds, and warming the yeast of new ones imported from socially stressed societies of the ‘Martins and the Coys’ variety.
It is a God of atomization of society - separation rather than cohesion. I can’t see much hope for advancement until children are thrown together to exchange their curiously-different lunch foods and grow up in multi-mixed communities. If parents/Mullahs/Rabbis/Archbishops/the affluent/ --- want religious or social segregated schools, let them pay for those themselves - totally. It is the job of Governments to provide adequately for Government schooling, not for fostering social division.

There is a language for all, which is growing. Esperanto.
Through the universal second language of Esperanto the world and its cultures is opened up to everybody. http://en.lernu.net/

…Looking downwards from the plateau of middle class affluence, multiculturalism gleams in a soft marshmallow glow of ignorance. But looking from the bottom of society upwards, the rude parts of multiculturalism are exposed. Only by force of legislation and ruthless attack on racism, can multiculturalism succeed in pacifying overt objection; objection from those in society who are dispossessed and alienated by its extremes.

…When multiculturalism is both the cause and the pacifying cloak for the mistake of overpopulation, with resultant and unavoidable strain in national infrastructure, suppressed objectors to multiculturalism emerge in the name of Breivik

I think multiculturalism is only a lovely thing when its excesses are repudiated, not least the second-class treatment of women of some cultures (that includes plenty of non-Islamic cultures). I'd rather celebrate multiracialism rather than multiculturalism. Multiculturalism in Australia is really only acceptable when it lies within our egalitarian, humanitarian and liberal set of values. That is not to say that what Valerie has written is not correct - about children learning from what lay behind the wars and disputes of their traditional cultures. But those differences and disputes must stop at the shores of our country.

Valerie writes
'The private schools emphasise the differences between us – the rich and the poor, as well as the different religions and nationalities. '

What worn out dogma and an insult to the many people struggling to pay for private schools while others suck on the Government entirely. The private schools provide moral guidance as opposed to secular dogma which promotes immoral guidance. Some people just refuse to get it and hide behind their predujices. The last time I checked private schools had Asians, African, Kiwis, Jews, Aussies etc.