Jeff Bigger’s latest piece on AlterNet brings up a topic tossed about lately — not necessarily what life would be like for those who teach and send their children to schools in the Tucson Unified School District if someone like Nuestra Palabra’s Tony Diaz was our superintendent — but what could have been done differently from the very beginning of TUSD Superintendent John Pedicone’s tenure that would have certainly prevented TUSD from this national embarrassment.
From Jeff Biggers piece that you can read here:
Consider this: If Tony Diaz were TUSD superintendent, tiny little children would not be patted down by security officers and police before entering a school board meeting (such as this incident from last Tuesday), but given free books, such as the celebrated Arizona masterpiece, La Maravilla, by Alfredo Vea.
If Tony Diaz were superintendent of Tucson schools, children would learn how to emulate their teachers and education leaders and use civil discourse in discussing the state’s diverse populations….
The refreshingly positive and joyous celebration of the Librotraficantes transcends such dehumanizing language with the power of poetry, fiction and essay. Galvanizing students and teachers and community members into a national movement for literature, Diaz and his Librotraficantes are on the verge of sparking a veritable book revival….
In a school district where 62 percent of the students come from Mexican American households, could Superintendent Pedicone—or Arizona education chief John Huppenthal, and school board members Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks, all of whom have made disparaging comments about Latinos—even pass a pop quiz and name four Mexican American and four Native American writers, educators and social figures from Arizona?
With Diaz’s assistance, Pedicone, Stegemen and Hicks—and even state officials like Huppenthal and Horne—can learn the answer to that pop quiz by checking out the extraordinary Mexican American Studies curriculum that has been banned from Tucson.
Or, they can join the Librotraficante caravan.
After the jump, a bonus video of Biggers’ appearance during the recent Festival of Books:
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2012.
Talk about getting things totally wrong. I am hispanic and I do not believe in the Mexican American Studies curriculum. The way it was being taught was to hate the United States and what this country stands for. I believe the general public should see what was being taught by the teachers teaching Mexican American Studies. As far as I know school district 1 is the only district teaching the course or was teaching the course. I wonder why? I think there should be some kind of student exchange program where if students want to learn American Mexican studies they could go to Mexico and learn about it first hand. I know a Mexican student would be happy and even proud to come here to learn about the United States. This is my opinion and that of my family and nobody speaks for me and my family.
I think the reading list would be a good one but understanding the evil nature of the Hacienda System in Mexico would also be part of my list.In many ways it was worse than slavery.I would also want the students to read about the slaughter of the 300 Chinese immigrants by revolutionary forces….it is good to see that when the boot is on the other guys neck we all had moments to be ashamed of our people.