Thinking and Teaching With Purpose

Precious Knowledge is a documentary about the steps one school district took to inspire and teach students about their heritage, and the opposition they faced. It follows the teachers and students of the Mexican American/Raza Studies class at Tucson Magnet High School in Arizona. According to the 2010 US Census, the population of Tucson, Arizona, is 42.6% hispanic, compared to 18% nationally. Given these statistics, it is clear why an Ethnic Studies program would be desirable in this district. Teachers and students recognized a need for these students to see themselves in their texts and curricula, and this was not happening. The three students of focus in the documentary were Crystal, Pricila, and Gilbert. Each student expressed a desire to learn that clashed with the culture of their school. They felt pushed out, like education wasn’t for them even though they recognized the value of it. One teacher in the documentary stated that although ...

Our articles this week focused on two student populations that are often pushed into the school-to-prison pipeline . The case study “Smoking Guns or Smoke & Mirrors?: Schools and the Policing of Latino Boys” by Victor Rios and Mario Galicia outlines the issues faced by Latino students whose actions are scrutinized more closely than those of their white peers. They begin by recounting the story of four high-school students who were wrongfully accused of having a gun at a supermarket. “The white mother that witnessed the boys ‘grabbing whatever they could grab,’ panicked when she saw the boys in a conflict and apparently witnessed seeing a gun. She ran to the school to report the gun sighting to high school administrators. The school immediately reported the incident to local law enforcement and put the school’s students, staff, and administrators on lockdown until the investigation was over” (54). The boys in question had no idea they were even accused of a crime until they ...

Successful communication between people relies on comprehension of language. Whether spoken or signed, written or physical, human beings attempt to communicate with each other in ways that both parties can understand. When it comes to education, language plays a major role in student growth and achievement. As articulated in our three readings, there are a variety of ways that students can interact with language that will benefit them through their schooling years. In her article “How Hawaiian Came Back from the Dead”, Alexandria Neason explores how Hawaiian language immersion schools allow students to “never feel bound to the language of their oppressors. Instead, they could stand tall, unapologetically Hawaiian”.  There are still 18 thousand Native Hawaiians who speak the language, which was banned in 1893 after the monarchy was overthrown. People are not willing to let go of this important part of their heritage. This sentiment echoes those of the other minority st...