Sustaining and Protecting "Precious Knowledge"

 Palos, A. McGinnis, E. (Director). (2011). Precious Knowledge [Video file]. Dos Vatos. Retrieved June 20, 2021, from Kanopy.

                                                    

    This documentary followed the Mexican American/Raza Studies Program in the Tuscon Unified School District, from its creation born out of necessity to its downfall due to misinformation, chosen ignorance and white supremacy all the while highlighting the program's core values of creating critical and dynamic thinkers in their students, and empowering them to "read the world" (Paulo Freire). The documentary lists statistics and outcomes of Mexican and Latino(a) students prior to the creation of the Raza studies program as being grim-with a 50% drop out rate, students who are disengaged, suffering corporal punishment at a rate of 4:1 compared to white peers, persecuted for speaking Spanish during social interactions at lunch, and in the words of a student in the Tuscon Schools, being felt as if "they don't want me here, they want me to just drop out" (Gilbert). This creates a strong case for the need of change in the Tuscon school system in response to their student demographics and needs, which came in 1997 in the form of the Mexican American/Raza Studies program. Student outcomes on standardized tests improved, and the graduation rate of students taking these electives rose to 93%. The teachers in the department state that their classes focus on love, searching for truth, teaching through a social justice lens with critical thinking. The classes use traditional Mesoamerican beliefs and customs such as Tezcaltipoca which encourages critical reflection of oneself and then positive action, to both teach about the culture while also empowering their students. This empowerment gives the students a voice and call to action when they are then presented in their classes with data about inequities in education, job opportunities and the prison system-giving this information to students and empowering them to proactively act on it is exactly what Lisa Delpit encourages when speaking about culture of power-if you are not part of the culture of power, being informed of the rules of the culture of power and about the systems in place makes the acquisition of power easi                             

    It is unfortunate that those who were in power in the Tuscon School System, like Horne and Huppenthal, chose not to do this. The tenants they stood behind to eliminate the program included that it was ethically wrong to divide students by their ethnicity (however by the looks of the makeup of the Raza studies classes, they were diverse and not ethnically segregated) and that by celebrating aspects and figures from other cultures, this was negating the American culture. Their ignorance about the true reality and benefits of these classes was strengthened by their unwillingness to visit the classes, or once they did, to accept what they were seeing at face value, as Huppenthal then questioned the authenticity of his visit. I think what the resistance boils down to, was really framed perfectly by a student during Huppenthal's visit-fear, just as the student points out, there was fear during the Civil Rights Movement, and this fear by people in power of change likely comes from the fear of losing their power or thinking it will be relinquished, but this is not an adequate or just reason when that comes at the price or cost of others not having access to that power-this is a human rights issue. This article calls this censorship of building critical thinking and understanding in our students a reach into our classrooms to squash a curriculum that encourages them to question injustice and and see themselves as capable of making the world a better place. If the Arizona legislature had looked at this program for this reality of what it is, as opposed to just being afraid and unwilling, the outcome may have been different. Such districts as Seattle have seen the benefit in recent times  and the recent events regarding this bill in Arizona point to a hopeful future for the return of the ethnic studies program. 

    Watching this film as one of the final pieces to this class was very culminating in that the teachers in the Raza studies courses were doing the work spoken about and encouraged by the important figures we have been hearing from such as Duncan-Andrade, when the teacher speaks about the mythical hope of Obama's presidency and asks students to think critically about if Dr. King's dream has been realized, as well as being beacons of critical hope, and encouraging students to become critical and empowered thinkers as Gholdy Muhammad states is vital in educating students beyond skill based curriculum.  I was very encouraged to see that this type of education has made its way to our state, in Providence Schools, who got their start by noticing :

Of our textbook’s 1,192 pages, fewer than 100 pages are dedicated to people of color. That’s less than 10% of our history curriculum, in a district where 91% of the students are people of color. —Providence student Afaf Akid

This led to the piloting of discussion and activity based Ethnic Studies classes being piloted across 5 high schools in Providence in 2016. However the work is still far from being done. As the map below shows, there are only 9 states and the the District of Columbia that have laws creating standards, committees or authorize courses regarding ethnic studies or multicultural history.