The Office of Hispanic
Education is the brain child of
Governor Bill Richardson.
It is part of his "renaissance" in education.
Blogger Paul Guessing calls it
politically-correct pandering, link.
A couple of questions;
If an Office of Hispanic Education will actually do anything
to help, why not also have an Office of Vietnamese Education,
and an Office of Native American Education, and an Office
of African American Education, and how about an Office for
Germans, Japanese, and Canadians?
How about an Office for Individual Education?
If we can address the educational needs of individuals,
the color of their skin no longer plays.
The idea that you can treat individual students in groups
is the problem, not the solution.
Friday, August 07, 2009
The Office of Hispanic Education
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9 comments:
They actually already have an Office of African-American Education. It has been in place for sometime. Which begs the question: Why an office for a populace that is about 6% of the state, and not an office to represent 49+% which is Hispanic, or 16% which is Native American (though this is supposedly presided over by the feds already).
But more to the point, what has the Governor's Office of African-American students done other than take complaints about racism and "inequality"? And will this finger-pointing and ethnic critique be laced into the mission of the Hispanic students office?
In the end, why is the governor pandering to "minority students" and giving them preferential treatment? do not all children deserve to be protected, treated equally, given a feeling of "specialness"?
When White kids find themselves in schools where their numbers are few, they are often the victims of bullying, abuse and racial intolerance. Where is the Governor's panel for that?
And what about an office of Asian student affairs, or Islamic student affairs? Both these groups get bullied, harassed and humiliated almost non-stop. That's often why they have to "stick together" during school time, for protection.
And yet, Richardson and the ever-useless Veronica Garcia is going to take the failed model of African-American Students office and make a failed Hispanic students' office from it.
NEWSFLASH Garcia & Richardson: White kids fail (especially poor Whites), Asians don't graduate, Islamic kids get private tutors or charter school for their own safety.
ANOTHER NEWSFLASH: the rates of fail and drop out for Mexican, Chicano, Salvadorian, Cuban and Spanish students are completely different rates and the drop out reasons are very different factors. How ignorant do you have to be to think there's 1 (ONE) "Hispanic" graduation problem with 1(ONE) solution????
VERONICA GARCIA (& RICHARDSON)-You are Hispanic...so why are you displaying this ignorance that all "Hispanics" are basically the same?
You've outdone yourselves looking the idiot! Congrats!
Can someone who is not currently an APS employee report this to the OCR (Office of Civil Rights) and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). THIS IS DISCRIMINATION!
Both of these organizations have history of correcting APS and are familiar with New Mexico's educational policies.
I would do it, but it would definitely mean my eventual termination and/or "licensure issues" would mysteriously arise.
The State of New Mexico Office of African-American Affairs.
Website: http://www.oaaa.state.nm.us/
Sponsored and approved by Bill Richardson's administration and the taxpayers of New Mexico.
Where is the Mexican-American Affairs office?
Where can gay New Mexicans go on their government-sponsored site to celebrate specific cultural diversity" in NM?
DISCRIMINATION!
I am not anti-Black American, but to give them these special bennies on the tax payer dime and not offer it out to every cultural group in NM? How did this happen? Who supplicated who?
DISCRIMINATION & CULTURAL FAVORITISM by our state government!
Can kids who are 1/2 Hispanic get at least 1/2 benefits from this 1/2-ass'd idea for office of Hispanic education?
Will the "O, HE!" program split in 1/2 to provide specific services for Hispanics w/ 2nd language [English] issues vs those whose primary, and often only, language is English?
This is a foolish Red Herring. This is a distraction. This is a useless self-pat on the back for Richardson and Garia. This is a "bird that cannot fly" (pollo / chicken).
SHAME ON YOU Richardson & Garcia. Using OUR people to make a fakey phoney service that turns even more people against us... and obviously from the outset you don't even recognize the needs of your own people as shown in this cockamaney program you're putting together.
There's a special place in Hell for people that exploit their own race, with false promises and hopes, just so they can move ahead politically!
SHAME ON YOU BOTH!
Ironically, Veronica Garcia & Co. canceled all the Multicultural Standards from the state list of standards about 2-3 years ago.
Multicultural Standards were created in the USA so all children would see themselves represented in Readings, pictures, cultural fairs, etc..
An equally important feature of Multicultural ed was to teach children about each other... mainly to identify what they had in common, and interesting differences, and to break cultural stereotyping.
Multicultural Ed represents Germans, Japanese, African, Islamic, Gay, Female heroes, Mexicans, Chicanos, Native Americans, etc...
For instance, the historic appointment of Sotomayor is a great subject for multicultural ed.
But V. Garcia & Co threw all that out. ...and yet support an African-American Student Affhy couldn;t you have held out a loving and equal hand to ALL New Mexico's children, VERONICA and BILL?
Follow the Money trail.
I can assure you there's a grant, or some sort of $$ to be gained by putting together an "Office of Hispanic education" specifically.
Wow! What a public relations coupe.
Anyone who disagrees with the creation of the "Office of Hispanic Education" will appear to be a racist. Looking at this topic in Google search seems that the media are loving the idea and eating it up.
I have a Master's degree that relates to this topic, and I think research and similar programs around the country, mainly for African-Americans, will show the results to weaken the minority community involved, not assist it.
what often happens with such problems is that parents and students will burden the program with accusations of racism (which should be field under a different office), over-the-top demands like private tutors at home, demands by parents & schools for money for school supplies, uniforms, computers, etc...
What eventually happens is that the minority students weaken as they become used to leaning on the government office for aid, then blame said office when they don;t succeed.
In truth, there's nothing an "Office for Hispanic Education" can really do that the schools, parents and students aren't already doing.
This office can create resentment that other races are "left out" or "not funded". This office can also become the "crutch" and "excuse" for already failing Hispanic students.
It's a "PR Darling" moment that will sizzle to a nothing, with funds going nowhere and people that do nothing getting paid a lot to be "directors".
I hope people will look closely at this and really give it some thought before going forward with "Hurrahs!" and suupporting it blindly.
After all.... if the idea is so great...how come they didn't start it years ago? Why now? There's an obvious political answer to that.
Creating an Office for Hispanic Education is desperately needed. This office could study the reasons for Hispanic students dropping out like flies from our NM high schools. Hispanic students are close to 40 percent of the state's student population. I know that they could do better if someone can provide some analysis of the problems. And, yes the problems are probably racial, but I believe it has more to do with the curriculum. Hispanics are being forced to learn what caucasians naturally know (language, history) and then we wonder why they are always a step behind. Offer them something that relates to their own lives and they thrive. Use teaching methods that they learn best and they will learn, but keep devaluing what they know and we will continue to see the same trends. I applaud Richardson for thinking out of the box. No one can tell me that there are no differences in learning styles, life styles between cultures. Maybe you can learn something from one of the best high schools in the country (Academy). Ask any of their faculty what diversity means in the classroom not in politics. The problem with public schools is that everyone is an expert, everyone knows how kids learn without any regards for the studies from Virginia Collier, Wayne Thomas, Jim Cummins, Kathy Short, James Banks, etc. etc... Keep doing the same for everyone in the name of politics. We always have in the name of the taxpayer but continue to see the evidence (data) get worse. Why does a position for Hispanic Education need to be racial? Maybe we shouldn't call it Hispanic, call it the Office of Geesha, but please research the real problems which will lead to real solutions.
You listed the reasons why Hispanics "under perform". They under perform for the same reason all kids under perform (but to to different degrees); we are trying to move them lockstep through 12 years of education they don't really want.
When a kid stands before you with an educational problem; you simply address the problem. Ethnicity shouldn't place.
Grouping kids together for no good reason, serves no good purpose.
Thanks for your comment.
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