Precious Knowledge Analysis

James W. Loewen is a sociologist who taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont.[1] He received a PhD in sociology at Harvard and taught at Tougaloo College in Mississippi before Vermont.[2] In 1974, he wrote a history textbook for Mississippi students, but the state rejected it because his depictions of slavery were “too horrific for high school students to stomach. ”[3] He sued the state’s textbook purchasing board and won because their rejection was not justifiable and that they denied Loewen his First Amendment rights of free speech and press.[4]

The numerous cases that were brought into the book were all part of the education litigation that was fought by Mexican Americans has been overseen by and many and almost forgotten. He accomplishes the success of the Mexican American journey of these law suits using critical race theory and shows the value of Chicano to education and shows how the Hispanic community carved the foundation in improving the educational opportunities for people of colored skin. The case of Independent School District v. Salvatierra (1930) was another case that was mentioned in this book and it was another case that segregated Mexican American children based off language grounds.

In 1791 Thomas Paine wrote a book about America’s demeanor and several centuries later not much has changed. In almost three hundred years buildings have sprung up where forest once thrived, races have come together despite cultural differences, and political lines have rearranged to create the constantly evolving United States of America. The surface of America will never stop changing but, the principles of the American people will always be the same. We as a people will always be accepting of anyone regardless of race and we will always support the right to choose heedless of class. However riots and protestors have begun in an attempt to stop the police officers from treating Americans with such brutality.

During the 1920s, the Chicano movement faced many political challenges. One of the many problems was many teachers didn 't put in effort to teach Chicanos. In addition, schools had student’s graduate high schools without even being ready for college. One example of the political challenges the Chicano movement suffers is discussed in the History of a Barrio by Richard Romo the author asserts; “the Los Angeles School District maintained separate schools for Mexicans on the premise that Mexicans had special needs” [Romo 139]. In other words, this demonstrates that school districts separated Chicanos from normal classes because they had trouble learning.

This film shows a huge issue with federalism. Within the test cases shown in the video, we see the national law that requires desegregation and the state laws stating that blacks and whites must be segregated clashing. The Brown Vs Board of Education case determined that the "separate but equal" doctrine violated the constitution because it did not offer equal protection to all people. This made some state governments very angry because they believed that ruling schools to be desegregated violated their personal rights, which was obviously not the case. The state governments didn't want to help desegregate the schools because the governors wanted the students to be segregated, but since national law stated that students will not be segregated or discriminated against, they sent help from the National Guard to protect the black students.

This article explains the situation of Alisa, who was disheartened that due to her undocumented status, she was excluded from financial aid and would be unable to attend college like 65,000 other undocumented students that graduate from high school every year. This is a common situation that many undocumented students go through. Alisa’s life story can be used as an example to show how it does not matter if you are the top of your class, undocumented students are just considered undocumented immigrants. Their rights are oppressed and this is a strong point I would like to state in my essay. I could use this article to show how the DACA act could have changed this situation if Trump continues to push for the repeal.

When nine young African American students volunteered to enroll they were met by the Arkansas national guard soldiers who blocked their way. Along with the national guard these nine students were surrounded by an angry white mob who were screaming harsh comments about this situation. On this day not one of nine African American students gained entrance to the school that day. Along with came a later situation where a Air Force veteran named James Meredith sought to enroll in the all-white University of Mississippi known as “Ole Miss” where he was promptly sent away. However in the September of 1962 with the help of the NAACP Meredith won a federal court case that ordered the university to desegregate.

Despite the US Supreme Court ruling that made segregation in schools illegal (in Brown v. Board of Education), school districts around the country continued to discriminate against Latino students. As [someone from documentary] mentions, “quote”. Although nearly half a century has passed since East L.A. Walkouts, limitations on Chicano Studies continue to occur. To understand the contributions of the ‘Walkouts’, we will paragraph 1 and challenges that the education of Chicanos currently face. Prior to the implementation from the federal government, such as English as a Second Language (ESL), College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), and Executive Order 15333, Chicano students in California and Texas demonstrated protested which forced school districts and the United States government to focus on the issues.

We Were Children, the documentary on residential schools, is a re-enactment of two aboriginal children and their first hand experiences in the residential school system. The kinds of problems this documentary presented include mistreatment faced by the children who attended these schools, corruption and scandal inside the administration of the schools, and the false perception about these schools that resonated amongst Canadian society. These two children talk about the bullying they had to endure from the nuns which show that the children were not seen as equal to a child of non-Aboriginal decent. Furthermore, the types of abuse administration would put these kids through was immensely disturbing considering this was a state run institution.

Guatemala is located in Central America and was once heavily populated with the Mayan population. Ever since the Spaniards took over the land that the Mayans called theirs, the Mayans became enslaved in their home country and have been struggling to regain power ever since. For many years the people of Guatemala have been poorly treated and have been constantly fighting to keep their land against the government. Guatemala has been at civil war for a very long time due to economic and political inequalities which in turn lead to the Mayans protesting against the governments that were causing damage to their land. Although the Mayans believed that these protests would solve the issues that they were facing but in reality the government just invested

Furthermore, in “Freedom writes” composed by Richard LaGravenese a teacher named Erin Gruwell is attempting to help a class of distressed students in a high school who suffers from racism and gang violence. During one of her periods she has a class

In fear of being held accountable, and losing their security, educators have been aligning their fight with their political loyalties to US imperialism, creating compromises with model systems that impede the process of educational change that students need. We need to make teaching and learning more than a score. We need to advocate for teachers, not just for their rights but so that we can teach what matters: critical thinking, civic courage, curiosity, creativity, collaboration. In the book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), Freire conceptualizes the structure of an oppressed society and brings education into the forefront of his argument by saying that to free oneself from this oppressive system, we must be able to recognize the nature of the oppressive cycle and increase our consciousness of it in a way that is not passive. We need to stop being passive.

Segregation of Mexican Americans from the dominant Anglo race has been around for many years. Since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexican Americans have been treated like a second-class race facing racism and segregation. As a result, segregation in the education system affected Mexican American children. An increasing number of Mexican Americans across California led to an increase of Mexican children enrolling in schools. Author David James Gonzales (2017), explores the degrading school facilities Mexican students were assigned to.

or she saw with one or two low-income student. As a future counselor, a statement in such matter showed that this person should not be a teacher. That teacher prefers to not integrate his or her school. Looking at this article through a counselor lens, I believe it is our duties to advocate for all students no matter their SES or ethnic background. There is clearly more work in advocating for students in working class school, but there are students that still needs our help in the upper class school.

As Americans, we view the Constitution as a stepping stone to making the great country we live in today. Yet, we the people of the United States failed to realize another component in order to form a perfect union. Which is to establish and promote equal opportunities for a quality education for all. However, we live in a society where social locators such as class, gender, and race are huge factors in the determination of one’s educational future.