Precious Knowledge: State Bans on Ethnic Studies, Book Traffickers (Librotraficantes), and a New Type of Race Trial
2013; North Carolina Law Review Association; Volume: 91; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0029-2524
Autores Tópico(s)Diverse Education Studies and Reforms
ResumoThe rapid growth of populations of color, particularly relatively young groups like Latinos, has generated an increasing number of conflicts over schools and schooling. One such controversy erupted in Tucson, Arizona, over a successful Mexican American Studies program in the public schools. The controversy featured accusations that the program was unAmerican and biased, while defenders countered that it greatly boosted attendance, graduation rates, and aspiration level for hundreds of Latino schoolchildren, many from poor immigrant families. Prior to the program’s inception, drop-out rates for this group were nearly fifty percent; the program elevated the graduation rate to nearly ninety. Taught by energetic young teachers, many of them graduates of university-level ethnic studies programs, the course of instruction emphasized Latino history and culture, including works by well-known authors. When the Arizona authorities banned the program under a new law prohibiting the teaching of ethnically divisive material and removed the offending textbooks to an offsite book depository in front of shocked schoolchildren, the local Latino community exploded in indignation. A Texas community-college professor organized a caravan of librotraficantes (book traffickers) that carried trunkfuls of “wet books” all the way from Houston to Tucson, where the drivers gave them away to schoolchildren and interested bystanders.
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