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<font size=2>February 01, 2012 <br><br>
Worse Off Today Than in the Sixties<br><br>
</font><h1><b>Who Gives a Damn?</b></h1><font size=2>by RODOLFO F.
ACUÑA<br><br>
Teresa Wiltz in <i>America’s Wire</i> writes that despite claims of
increased educational opportunities for minorities that the performance
of black and Latino teenagers remains the same or lower than 30 years
ago. In fact, the math and reading performance of black and Latino
high school seniors equal that of 13-year-old white students – so much
for the post racial society.<br><br>
Educators and liberal politicos point the finger at low expectations,
inequality of resources, less qualified teachers, the income inequality,
teacher bias, and inexperienced teachers. They throw in the tracking of
black and brown students into remedial class while whites are put into
university bound classes.<br><br>
Further, minority students are more likely to be given “A’s” for work
that would receive a “C” in a rich school giving the illusion that they
are being educated. Society would not tolerate this record in a
football team at any level, or for that matter if we had fewer weapons of
mass destruction than 30 years ago.<br><br>
However, in my view, the major reason for the lack of progress of Mexican
American and other minorities is society’s historical amnesia or more
aptly its Alzheimer disorder that erases the memory of previous efforts
or commitments to bridge the gap between black, brown and white – rich
and poor.<br><br>
The truth be told, educators pay less attention today to Mexican
Americans than it did 50 years ago. In the sixties educators and
reporters at least talked about it. The late Los Angeles Times’
columnist Ruben Salazar attacked the dropout problem and the failure of
the schools to devise a relevant curriculum, as well as the failure to
recruit and train effective Mexican American teachers.<br><br>
In February 1963, Salazar began a series on Mexican American education.
He titled his first article, “What Causes Jose’s Trouble in School?:
Mexican-Americans Problems Analyzed.” Salazar begins,<br><br>
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<dd>Kicked out of school, Jose Mendez at 16 has been trapped in a
peculiar twilight zone of American life. They tested him, graded him and
pigeonholed him…say some educators, the fault may lie in the tests and
the teachers –not in Jose. Educational policy and curriculum are oriented
towards the education of the middle-class, monolingual, monocultural
English-speaking student … [Jose] is at a great disadvantage…[he] is a
hyphenated American, a Mexican-American … he is culturally
confused.<br><br>
</dl><font size=3>Salazar interviewed educators, Drs. George I. Sánchez,
Paul Sheldon, Julian Samora and high school teacher Marcos de Leon on why
José was dropping out of school. They attributed the dropout problem to
the Mexican American’s inferiority complex, which has intensified his
marginalization.<br><br>
Salazar blamed the schools for the Mexican Americans failure. Schools
nurtured a negative self-image, which was reinforced by the movies and
literature, and failed to correct the stereotyping of poor
Mexicans. It was a vicious cycle: the schools did think Mexicans
could not learn, students developed a low esteem, they failed and dropped
out.<br><br>
The experts advocated bilingual-bicultural education, and initially there
was a consensus for these programs, from President Lyndon B. Johnson to
Republican St. Ronald Reagan. Yet, the Greek Chorus gained traction and
labeled the programs separatist, un-American and racist. This nativist
movement allied itself with right wing thinks tanks and foundations, and
by the beginning of the 21st century, bilingual ed died a violent
death.<br><br>
By and large educators were mute as bilingual programs were wiped out and
university based teacher training programs specializing on Mexican
Americans were eliminated. At teacher training institutions grade point
average was favored over knowledge of the child’s background. Although
Latinos comprised 75 percent of the Los Angeles Unified School District,
student teachers were given minimal preparation on how to teach Latino
students.<br><br>
The dropout was one of the major reasons for the development of Chicano
Studies in 1969. A solution was sought for the high dropout problem that
was overexposing Latino students to a life of poverty and not
incidentally to the Vietnam draft. One of my first books <i>Cultures in
Conflict: Case Studies of the Mexican American </i>was written for fifth
graders<i>.</i> The purpose was to build a positive image in order to
facilitate the acquisition of skills. These skills would prepare students
to enter which ever field they wanted.<br><br>
The importance of self-image is common sense. I remember looking for
engineering computer lab with my future wife at UCLA in the 1980s.
We asked several students if they knew where the computer lab was.
They all gave us blank looks. Finally, we asked a Latino student who told
us to ask an Asian. We did and she told us where it was. Talking to
Asian fiends they told me that they exceled in math because the teachers
expected them to.<br><br>
Looking back at my own life, I was fortunate that I ended up in a Jesuit
high school where I had to take four years of Latin. My relatives would
notice my Latin book on the table, would ask my mother who it belonged
to, and they would remark that Rudy must be smart. In contrast, in
the first grade, before I knew English, I was pushed out of public school
as mentally retarded.<br><br>
When I became smart, that is adhered to their rules, anytime a Mexican
student would act up, other teachers would ask me why? When I told them,
they generally did not like the answer. They thought I was flip when I
said that my solution for the marginalization of Mexicans was to rewrite
the bible and substitute the word Mexican for Israeli. In a couple of
decades, Mexicans would start looking at themselves as the “chosen
people.”<br><br>
This identity has helped Jews survive and endure over 2,000 years of
persecution. In my view it comes down to self-image.<br><br>
This was the premise of the Tucson Unified School District’s
program. It was the repairing the damage done by marginalization –
of being written out of history. The thinking was that learning
history, literature and the arts though their viewpoint would repair the
image of the greaser, the loser and the numerous other
stereotypes.<br><br>
From the beginning, the xenophobes tried to send the Mexican American
Studies program down the same path as bilingual education. It was
unpatriotic to learn any language other than English, it was un-American
to learn history other than the American way.<br><br>
The reasoning ignored the past; it was as if the debates of the sixties
and seventies never occurred. They disregarded pedagogical principles
that even St. Ronald accepted.<br><br>
One of the books banned in Tucson was Paulo Freire’s <i>Pedagogy of the
Oppressed</i>. It was based on a highly successful literacy
campaign conducted in Brazil. The xenophobes’ main argument is that
Freire was a Marxist, which is ridiculous since the pedagogy goes back to
Socrates. With that aside, would we cast aside a cure for cancer because
the researcher was a Marxist?<br><br>
The Cambium Learning Corp’s Curriculum Audit of the Tucson Mexican
American Studies Department which was commissioned by Arizona
Superintendent of Schools John Huppenthal and cost the $177,000
concluded,<br><br>
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<dd>No observable evidence exists that instruction within Mexican
American Studies Department promotes resentment towards a race or class
of people. The auditors observed the opposite, as students are taught to
be accepting of multiple ethnicities of people. MASD teachers are
teaching Cesar Chavez alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, all
as peaceful protesters who sacrificed for people and ideas they believed
in. Additionally, all ethnicities are welcomed into the program and these
very students of multiple backgrounds are being inspired and taught in
the same manner as Mexican American students. All evidence points to
peace as the essence for program teachings. Resentment does not exist in
the context of these courses, observable evidence exists that instruction
within Mexican American Studies Department promotes resentment towards a
race or class of people … No evidence as seen by the auditors exists to
indicate that instruction within Mexican American Studies Department
program classes advocates ethnic solidarity; rather it has been proven to
treat student as individuals<br><br>
</dl>There has not been any credible proof to refute claims that the
program has improved chances of graduation, improved the students’
self-images, and motivated them to pursue a higher education.<br><br>
A society that has historical dementia or Alzheimers cannot correct the
defects of the present just like it cannot correct racism, sexism or
homophobia.<br><br>
Stupidity and fanaticism led to the destruction of the most
transformative movements in Latin American, Liberation Theology. The
forces of reaction in order to protect the large landowners redbaited
Liberation Theology and substituted a reactionary evangelical Christian
movement that promised that their reward would come in the next world. So
it is in Arizona.<br><br>
With the destruction of Mexican American Studies and the banning of the
books, Mexican Americans are being put in their place. Vicariously, they
are burning the infidels. The difference is that students are fighting
back! They are reading books and will remember that anybody can
learn. It is their right.<br><br>
RODOLFO ACUÑA</b>, a professor emeritus at California State University
Northridge, has published 20 books and over 200 public and scholarly
articles. He is the founding chair of the first Chicano Studies Dept
which today offers 166 sections per semester in Chicano Studies. His
history book Occupied America has been banned in Arizona. In solidarity
with Mexican Americans in Tucson, he has organized fundraisers and
support groups to ground zero and written over two dozen articles
exposing efforts there to nullify the U.S. Constitution. <br><br>
<br><br>
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