Saturday, March 31, 2012
News Article: Eliminating Race from School Curriculum
Interesting article about what children supposedly should not learn about in school. The article about white privilege certainly would not be allowed in Arizona. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/education/racial-lens-used-to-cull-curriculum-in-arizona.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=racial&st=cse&scp=4
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From being an education major, it is important to incorporate culture in the classroom. It makes it acceptable and comfortable to students (especially in the younger years) for them to know that what is a part of them can be shown and approved in the classroom. We have learned about diversity and including that in the classroom is important and to be able to acknowledge differences is likewise important.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is extremely important to properly educate children about the issue of racism. Although, I also believe that even though it should be monitored, I think that they take it a bit too far. I remember teachers in my grade school talking about certain that books had been banned, etc. Then and even now I think that the books would have helped if anything else. We did end up reading a lot of literature involving issues of racism in the early 1900's and I feel like it truly helped me understand and develop a better sense of everyone being equal. I feel that (such as in this case) that there should be a more formal, but less strict process that determines what could potentially help children learn properly in regard to issues with racism.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that constantly discussing racial issues and tensions stirs people up and fosters more hatred. However, removing culture from education is not the answer. I think that kids should be able to read books about oppressed individuals and how they accomplished the American Dream. Taking this away sends the wrong message. On the other hand, racial sterotypes are often unfounded and create more tension. We need to start treating people as individuals and stop focusing on their skin color.
ReplyDeleteI think it is terrible that the educational system of Arizona, or the government in general, wants to individualize students and strip them of all attempts at an ethnic identity. The school system in general is a students first introduction at capitalist, success-based, performance-based, competition, which can be immensely alienating. This account is just one of many stories when the government banned racial or ethnic literature in order to refute ethnic solidarity and keep non-white students oppressed by the alienating environment of a government controlled school system designed for the success of white males. It's bullshit. The article is also shoddily written and focuses more on the girls reading list than the injustice done to the Mexican-American studies program as well as the students previously involved.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the officials in charge of removing this program from the curriculum are doing a good job. While I completely understand trying to take away the racial tension that may occur from these types of class, cultural education is something that can't be removed from the classroom. As the audits clearly showed, the people who took these classes are actually going to college more than their peers who did not take the class. The texts covered in the class gave some of the less privileged children hope that they could achieve similar goals themselves.
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