Kara's Blog

          Precious Knowledge: Fighting for             Mexican American Studies           Unbeknownst to me, Mexican-American students have a 50% drop out rate, the highest in the United States.  Precious Knowledge: Fighting for Mexican American Studies  highlights a Tucson, Arizona high school Mexican-American/Raza Studies program.  The Spanish expression la Raza  means the people or the community.   Student's interviewed stated that they "feel like the education system wants them to fail" and "nothing was done to help them get into college."          in 1997, the Hispanic Studies Department was created in the Tucson Public School District.  After this program was implemented there were noticeable changes in student achievement and decreased drop out rates.  One of teacher's descriptions of the progress bring made was best said as, "plant a seed and the seed will grow."  Later, in 2002 the Mexican-American Raza Studies was born.  It's focus wa

       Abolitionist teaching and the future of our                         schools (video).                              Bettina Love author, We Want to Do More Than Survive,  Gholdy Muhammad author, Cultivating Genius, Dena Simmons author, White Rules for Black People moderated by Brian Jones of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture come together to share their common interest in abolitionist teaching.           I really appreciated Gholdy Muhammad's approach to abolitionist teaching.  Her model has four goals in mind.  Identity, Skills, Intellect, and Criticality.  This model keeps the whole child in mind and creates equality for all students with each goal building upon the other.  Bettina Love adds, "abolitionist education is starting over, evening the playing field, and a push for all humanity."  Abolitionist teaching is a way of life.  We need to abolish the education system that is oppressive.  Steering away from standardized tests, state mandates, out

                          "I Am Not Your Negro" by James Baldwin. In this piece, American civil rights activist and author James Baldwin discusses racism in the United States in the 1960's.  It's a radical narration about race in America based on his personal essays from the 1950's and 1960's.  It is also a reflection of civil rights leaders, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers. “You never had to look at me. I had to look at you. I know more about you than you know about me. Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” This particular quote resonates with me because it reminds me of how certain individuals can be biased or racist against a single person or group without even speaking to them.  This quote examines some of the assumptions made about African-American's in the 1960's through the eyes of James Baldwin.  It depicts the end of racial discrimination and radical segregation in the U