Precious Knowledge

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                           Precious Knowledge by:  Ari Palos and Eren Isabel McGinnis


Image result for arizona student 1997 ethnicity state university


 

This video speaks of Arizona students’ need to learn more about their own cultures in schools.  There are very few books which even talk about Latino cultures.  This occurs in all cultures, but American History. 

 

This video focuses on young kids who grew up in the poor, underprivileged neighborhoods of Tucson, Arizona. It also relives the hard times Mexicans endured in earlier years where the schools did not care about them.  Most students ended up dropping out of school. School boycotts and walk-outs took place in order to improve the way Latinos were treated and educated.

 

It was not until 1997 that a community activism in Tucson Arizona focused more on Latino students’ and their attempt to reduce their dropout rates.  This was when the Hispanic Studies Department was created. It was renamed the Mexican-American Raza studies.  This class taught the students about their Indigenous roots.  The results were that those students taking that class showed a significant improvement on their standardized tests and the graduation rates significantly increased to an average of 93%.

 

The State School Superintendent wanted to ban the Ethnics Studies program because he believed that the students were being divided by ethnicity and being treated separately by ethnicity. This case was brought up in court for a decision on whether the program should continue or not because they believed that the classes would overthrow the US government. The program was eventually banned from schools as being threatening. The governor signed bill HB2281 into law.  This bill prohibited courses which promoted the overthrow of the US government or those courses which were designed for students of one particular ethnic group.

 

One of the main reasons I took up the LATINX class was so that I can learn more of my culture. I do not want to bring up politics, but the school superintendent of Tucson Arizona and the governor got involved to ban the program. In current day, I believe our country is being racially divided.  President Trump’s border wall promise closing off Mexico and the United States has divided whites and Latinos. The United States was built among diverse immigrants. Why can’t the children of these immigrants who came to the United States learn about their own culture? I do not believe it will divide, it will just educate the Latinos. Most immigrant’s children are born in the United States.  Why would I as a born United States citizen want to cause any harm in my own country? I does not make any sense.

 

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