Mexican American Textbook Analysis

Ever since the 1960s, the Texas textbook controversy has had an issue in America. The Texas school board is meeting to make revisions to their textbooks and curriculum. But are they also revising history? Educators across the country are watching to see the effect this issue will have on students. The choices the board members are making will affect politics, religion, monies spent thru-out the Texas school system. Christian conservatives on the state education board want curriculum changes. Parents and student would like the curriculum to remain the same, or not

this section of CH 29 in the old book states that Americans were made to think that after the Mexican American war the United States had become a world power when in reality they did not but one thing that the war did bring to the United States was add more prestige to the nation in the eyes of the Europeans this gave America more respect in the world stage. Another thing that the chapter stated was that America did not enter the war with imperialistic motivations but eventually they fell into imperialism and that America's new friend the British were happy with their new friendship but America's rival Germany was jealous of the advances America was making and the South Americans were suspicious of the American advances. When America took the

European history and British literature are perfectly fine classes in most American high schools, however the government has deemed that Hispanic-culture related classes are unacceptable, despite the positive results shown by the students. The prohibition of the ethnic studies program might revert the student to their old ways of dropping out of high school, which would essentially take away the chicanos’ chance of succeeding in getting a career and obtaining a college education. This is only one example of how minorities may not have equal opportunities as the white majority does due to institutional

Hispanic and Latino Americans faced segregation, limited citizenship, and denial of education. Mexican Americans fought for a bilingual education, equality of working conditions on farms, and full citizenship. Mexican American families wanted their children to get a fair education with instruction in Spanish and English (p. 96). While Puerto Rican Americans fought for independence, equality of education, and citizenship. Spring (2016) expresses the views of Puerto Rican Americans, “it is important to understand that the citizens of Puerto Rico did not ask to become part of the United States” (p. 99).

The Hispanic population is one of the fastest-growing minority populations in the United States. Despite their growing number and the great strides taken to narrow the academic gap, students learning English as a second language remain among the most educationally disadvantaged groups in the country. Madrid states that, “poor academic achievement of Latino students is indicative of a complex, multifaceted problem that must be addressed because as the Latino student population continues to grow, their poor achievement especially in mathematics and reading has significant implications not only for California’s public educational system, but also for the state’s and nation’s social, political, and economic future.”(2011). Schools across the country, both those that have served Hispanic students for many years and those that have new and growing populations, must take steps to improve the likelihood that Hispanic students reach the same high standards expected of all students.

Hispanic Americans: The US government has started granting us citizenship. It has come with a price though. We are now also required to sign up for the draft. Jose has been sent to fight in Europe, Miguel is guarding the Panama Canal. Not sure where I’ll end up

In the Texas Tribune the article: “Committee Denounces Proposed Mexican-American Studies Textbook” explains how many people who contributed to this book to only show wrong ideas and how it is just about hate. The different people that were in the article mentioned that the new textbook had 54 pages that were wrong in all ways. State Board Member Ruben Cortez Jr said “it is an utter shame we must deal with racially offensive academic work”.

Within America, each state is responsible for the operation of public schools and rules addressing curriculum, teaching methods, and learning materials; the process Texas has implemented to adopt new school textbooks is illustrated in the three articles, “Publisher Defends Controversial Mexican-American Studies Textbook, “Explained: how Texas picks its textbooks,” and “Teaching Truthiness.” These articles, in particular, focus on problems with Mexican-American Heritage, a proposed Mexican-American textbook for schools in Texas. They each express similar information over this event, such as the unique viewpoints of people involved. By analyzing this information, it becomes apparent that the current adoption process for textbooks in Texas doesn't

Steps have been made to improve the curriculum shown to students, but it is slow moving. In an article in Slate, the TEA rejected a proposal. The author wrote, “But in a close 8–7 vote, the Texas State Board of Education rejected a proposed amendment that would’ve empowered it to create an expert panel of academics charged with catching the type of embarrassing inaccuracies..” (Moser) However, some improvements have been made. In the San Antonio Current, the review board overturned the publishing of the Mexican American Heritage textbook where several racist comments were written, such as, “‘lazy’ compared to ‘American industrialists.’” (Zielinksi) In another San Antonio Current article, strives were made to correct the science curriculum. The way students learned about cells and their complexity changed from just evaluating it to comparing it. This allows for more room for future updates. However, evolution was not named as one in the discussion as it was beforehand. (Simmons) As in the past, evolution discussion in schools of the state, was controversial to their Christian beliefs which contradicts the amendment added to SB-6. (“Texas school

This document was written for the Mexican-American that wanted the same rights as other race that lived in America. The Mexican-American created an organization “The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), 1929” for their voices to be heard by the government that they are willing to put aside their culture and become Americans. They just wanted equalization so that they could also live the American dream without being harassed or mistreated by others.

Over the years, there has been an issue I Texas, but the main issue that has been going around is education in the public school’s system. In the pubic schools of Texas there are many problems that a student faces. The three main reasons are that some teachers don’t know how to speak English properly, some kids from private schools go to public schools, and finally there is no push from the teachers to help the students. These are the issues in which some students drop out or just do not try. In some schools in the state of Texas there are many types of teachers that could be from others countries or different background and that is ok, but if they don’t know to speak English properly then it ill be hard for the student to understand the teacher

United States is an example of the diversity cultures, but the majority is the Hispanic culture. The Hispanic culture has been growing up so fast in this country that currently White Americans does not want them here anymore. Most of White Americans has been debatable about the theme of Hispanics because the fact that they do not speak English, get more jobs than the white people does, taking money that they should not, and think that the Hispanics are bad persons because they could be drug dealers.

Mendez recalled asking her parents to not return to school on several occasions because she was afraid of the students. Like Mendez, who had to walk passed the “white school” to the Hispanic school, Jessie had to walk a substantial distance to her school, “With her sisters, Jessie then walked three miles to their country school, one classroom in a wooden bungalow” (Soto 52). Even though both girls had different upbringings, each faced an unjustness. Mendez had money and attended a “white school” but was later kicked out due to her race. Her father, Gonzalo Mendez, was furious; thus, began the court case battle of Mendez v. Westminster. He strongly believed all children deserved an equal education. The young Hispanic students attended an old school with rundown facilities; yet, everyone said it was “separate but equal”. Mendez eventually won the case, and the Caucasian and Hispanic schools were integrated. In my school, I barely learned about these two huge events; I read Esperanza Rising as a child, but a single book was the extent of my education. Today, Sylvia Mendez is fighting for Hispanic history to be added to the curriculum, which I completely support. Teaching students only the glamorous, “white” side of history will result in society with skewed views of other races and cultures.

The Texas trust board of education has the responsibility of making the official educational lesson plans. Therefore, how can Texans trust the lesson plans that are not contradicting Mexican heritage with racist travesty; or if all cultural history that is brought on by official facts of Mexican American culture. The board of education trusties is commanding a lawsuit for the racial tactics and demand for a new book to be created. It is one to judge a person by their race, but another to publicize post factual information.

In schools serving predominately all students of color living in poverty the “No Child Left Behind” Act is useless for closing any kind of achievement gap, and for outlining territories of the United States, the Act is completely invalid. In his article, “No Child Left Behind in Puerto Rico: How Does the No Child Left Behind Act Affect Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Students from Low-Income Communities,” Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services of the University of Illinois in Chicago Leonard Ramirez discusses how NCLB fails to serve students in it’s approach of treating students of all different geographic and ethnic, cultural, social economic status in the same manner. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico too had to follow the “No Child Left