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To continue my discussion of the harmful & pseudoscientific nature of broad swaths of modern US education, I want to bring in my work as a literary dignity activist (Google "Dignidad Literaria" for details).
Quick points: roughly 3700 books are published for kids each year.
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Quick points: roughly 3700 books are published for kids each year.
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Around 20% of those books feature POC protagonists. About half of THOSE books are WRITTEN by POC.
POC make up 50% of school-age children in the US.
These numbers used to be worse. There's been improvement since 2014. Not nearly enough, though.
Where does education fit in?
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POC make up 50% of school-age children in the US.
These numbers used to be worse. There's been improvement since 2014. Not nearly enough, though.
Where does education fit in?
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A vicious cycle of gatekeeping exists between Big Publishing and Institutional Education.
Primarily (85%) white, publishing puts out children's books & textbooks that mainly feature/center the white cultural experience.
School districts acquire them. Teachers teach them.
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Primarily (85%) white, publishing puts out children's books & textbooks that mainly feature/center the white cultural experience.
School districts acquire them. Teachers teach them.
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And since school districts are snatching up these predominantly white-worldview books (without demanding better representation for POC), publishers (making lots of money from taxpayers) keep churning that sort of material out.
What happens to kids caught in this system?
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What happens to kids caught in this system?
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When kids from communities of color are immersed in this capitalist, homogenous white US worldview & history, they begin to internalize a view of themselves as unworthy, lesser.
Given the erasure of their POC peers, white kids are implicitly told to value them less.
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Given the erasure of their POC peers, white kids are implicitly told to value them less.
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Let's talk standardized tests again.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1/3 of Latinx students perform below grade level. Other minoritized groups similar.
Multiple reasons for the gap have been cited: social, economic, systemic.
Nope.
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According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1/3 of Latinx students perform below grade level. Other minoritized groups similar.
Multiple reasons for the gap have been cited: social, economic, systemic.
Nope.
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Progressive scholars point to one of the single biggest barriersâwhether or not studentsâ culture is reflected/centered in both the taught & hidden curricula.
Capitalist US schools don't ensure kids from communities of color see themselves as part of academic conversation.
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Capitalist US schools don't ensure kids from communities of color see themselves as part of academic conversation.
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Kids from communities of color need to see their lives, their families, their communities, their culture, & THEIR WAYS OF KNOWING as worthy of academic studyâvaluable & integral parts of not just personal and school life, but of school work & broader national conversations.
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By REFUSING to do this work & instead perpetuating the rote learning of knowledge & skills skewed toward the support o white hegemony & jingoism, institutional education in the US is COMPLICIT in the continued structural racism of this country.
Testing illustrates this well.
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Testing illustrates this well.
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It is INCONTROVERTIBLE that standardized tests are deeply flawed, with a distinct cultural bias in favor of the white middle-class in terms of structure, content, & approaches.
Like other scholars, Portes & Zady (2001) show the impact on communal vs. individualist ideals.
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Like other scholars, Portes & Zady (2001) show the impact on communal vs. individualist ideals.
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If kids from communities of color that center communal ways of knowing are ENCOURAGED to continue with those cultural modalities in classrooms, they do fine.
When they are cut off from those modalities, they flounder (while POC from more individualist cultures thrive).
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When they are cut off from those modalities, they flounder (while POC from more individualist cultures thrive).
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US education is decidedly NOT communal. It's nationalistic. Jingoist, even.
It focuses on selfish individualism as a means to participating in the wealth-hording values of capitalism (even as just a cog in the wheel).
Communities that foster other values are excluded.
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It focuses on selfish individualism as a means to participating in the wealth-hording values of capitalism (even as just a cog in the wheel).
Communities that foster other values are excluded.
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In fact, any attempt to lift those communities up, to teach their children the role their ancestors played in the development of our present society (especially if that knowledge reveals the oppression they suffered at the hands of white hegemony) is QUASHED.
Think Arizona.
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Think Arizona.
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In 2010, Mexican American studies was perceived of as traitorous to the white capitalist ideals that institutionalized education is expected to promote in this country.
So it was shelved. Books by Chicanos were BANNED.
Years later, this was overturned. But damage was done.
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So it was shelved. Books by Chicanos were BANNED.
Years later, this was overturned. But damage was done.
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That's just one example in a 100-year history of cultural oppression by institutional education.
We've made some progress, but the SYSTEM ITSELF is the problem. We can bandaid for now. But like structures of white hegemony throughout our society, it needs to be dismantled.
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We've made some progress, but the SYSTEM ITSELF is the problem. We can bandaid for now. But like structures of white hegemony throughout our society, it needs to be dismantled.
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I still have more to say (in separate threads in the coming days), but ultimately every teacher, librarian, school & central office administrator, local school board member, state official and federal DOE bureaucrat is a gatekeeper who must change this dynamic.
Even POC.
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Even POC.
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Paolo Freire talked about sub-oppressors, members of a minoritized group whoâonce in a position of some powerâuse the same tools as the oppressors against their own people.
Many school districts in South Texas are run by Mexican Americans in oppressive, capitalist ways.
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Many school districts in South Texas are run by Mexican Americans in oppressive, capitalist ways.
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Their internalized colonization keeps them from promoting liberation pedagogy that would encourage cultural & ideological autonomy, centering decision-making in local communal systems.
Instead, they force obedience to white hegemony onto students who are harmed by it.
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Instead, they force obedience to white hegemony onto students who are harmed by it.
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"Democracy isnât the objective," says Mike Lee, preferring "prosperity" (capitalist accumulation of wealth by the few on the backs of the many).
But it should be. More precisely, DEMOCRATIC PLURALISM should be the objective.
Education should be restructured to fit it.
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But it should be. More precisely, DEMOCRATIC PLURALISM should be the objective.
Education should be restructured to fit it.
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