Ed week blog #2

Amid controversy, Tucson students flock to ethnic studies

Despite the push for legislature to do away with ethnic studies in the Tucson Unified School District, there has been a huge increase of enrollment in such classes more than ever before!

Basically, the story is centered around a social justice theme in this article. There are people working within the legislative department in the Tucson area that want to cut the funding to ethnic studies classes because the things that are being taught may be counter-American and so these policy makers fear that students will stir an uprising.

From what I receive from reading this article is that kids want to learn about American history from the lens of a non-Caucasian perspective. There can be definitely some accounts from history where certain races may have not been treated fairly in the past, but should not be discounted from modern day textbooks. I feel if a teacher and the students approach the lesson from an open-minded standpoint, then I believe true acceptance of the message and learning can occur. Also, the events that occurred in the past doesn't always reflect the character of the students in the present. So even though a student learns that his/her people from back in the day were mistreated, it doesn't mean that he/she has a valid reason to act out on that situation to his/her advantage.

I think many times we as an American society still overlook certain perspectives in textbooks and other forms of resources in our schools in order to protect the status quo. But what we need to realize is that our nation is becoming a larger melting pot of different cultures and views and our lawmakers need to keep up with new demands of the public and be more invested to the differences and not so much fear the unexpected outcomes of behaviors that may be anti-American.