A recent article in Salon magazine described the paranoid behavior of the educational establishment in Arizona in banning ethnic studies curricula in public high schools throughout the state. In "Who's Afraid of the Tempest?" by Jeff Biggers, the author described the effects of the decision of the Tucson board of education in enforcing the banning of such works as Shakespeare's The Tempest and texts that attempt to give a more comprehensive picture of American history than that of the status quo such as "Rethinking Columbus":
"By ordering teachers to remove 'Rethinking Columbus,' the Tucson school district has shown tremendous disrespect for teachers and students," said the book's editor Bill Bigelow.
"This is a book that has sold over 300,000 copies and is used in school districts from Anchorage to Atlanta, and from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine. It offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students think about the perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum."
The treatment of the ethnic studies curriculum, as described by a teacher in Tucson reminds me of the way in which totalitarian despots deal with controversial subjects: ban them from public schools :
"After meeting with our site administrators on Wednesday afternoon, we have been told that our entire curriculum and pedagogy must end immediately. Our students were mortified to hear the news and asked many amazing questions which we have few answers for except that the entire climate and content of our classes must drastically change.
"In sum, we have been told that we cannot teach any race, ethnic or oppression themed lessons or units. However, there has been no specific guidance and since our pedagogy is also deemed 'illegal' then we are not sure HOW to teach either. I asked if I could start teaching Shakespeare's The Tempest and was told no, due to the themes that are present and the likelihood of avoiding discussions of colonization, enslavement, and racism were remote."Adding more uneasiness and first amendment chill to our lives, we are still unclear if we will be found out of compliance with the law if our students discuss themes of race, ethnicity or oppression. . . . Lastly, we are to be frequently monitored, student work is to be collected and books were seized from our classrooms on Friday."
As a teacher of African-American literature in the 1960s and Jewish-American literature in the 1970s I can attest to the value of ethnic studies in opening the eyes of students to cultures and issues to which they had little if any exposure in what is often a blandly homogenized culture. And I find it especially ironic that Arizona, which is thoroughly infused with Spanish history, music, cuisine, and most significantly, the name of the state itself which is a Spanish derivation of an Aztec word for "silver-bearing," would consider it unacceptable to allow students to learn about the history and culture of what is now a majority "minority" public school population.
The argument that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has presented for withholding school funds from the Tucson school district until they banned such studies is that: "It is fundamentally wrong to divide students up according to their racial group, and teach them separately."
That Horne has instituted one of the most discriminatory immigration laws predominantly affecting Latinos and "separating" them from the rest of the population is one of the many ironies in a state that has consistently shot itself in the foot with its paranoid views on the influence of "foreign" elements. That Arizona and other states have suffered economically from these laws has been amply documented. It was, in fact, the business community in Arizona that provided one of the loudest voices in opposing these laws.
I will concede that learning about one's own ethnic history can be unsettling to young learners and there may be some teachers who have a social agenda that might not conform to the status quo. But as an educator, I've always found that examining the status quo was one of the most effective ways students can get the best education: by questioning things as they are. That officials in Arizona believe that by closing down these programs and thus insulting those who have enrolled in them they will not increase a sense of oppression by Latinos and other ethnic groups is as illusory as the words on a sign a colleague of mine hung in his office many years ago: "The flogging will stop when morale improves." And if The Tempest is banned from the classroom as being "too controversial," I wonder when the Bill of Rights will be banned as well.
So the racialization of savagery is the outcome of a complex historical process that involved the encounter of two different cultures societies , and economic and political systems - wherein one is debased from the perspective of the other whose identity came to be built upon the debasement . Important in this process is the uneven economic and military power between the two, as this factor determines whose perspective shall become dominant and shall persist among the two perspectives that naturally go with the two races . The racialization of savagery constitutes and is in turn constituted by various cultural forms as exemplified by The Tempest.
The major points of this lesson included: 1.) American Colonists debased the Native Americans. 2.) The identity of American Colonists was built upon the debasement of Native Americans.
Teaching Shakespeare was not the problem with this lesson.
In this school the principal is totalitarian despot. She has fired a large percent of the teachers for not agreeing with her. She actually told me "I can do anything I want to you and you have no recourse".
You have heard of the book Kite Runner - It was ban by her for the HS literature class because it was about Afghanistan which shows she hasn't read it and doesn't trust her professional staff!
The oligarch are afraid we might teach the students how to think which would be very hazardous to their rule!
How can you justify this action by making the derogatory statement that “This is America” ? Yes it is. Originally populated by the many Tribes, conquered by the Spaniards and then fought for by the MANY other races that came from Europe. This is America, a diverse mix of cultures and people from everywhere. Its very name is of “foreign” origin. The names of each state are as well. Yet you choose to try and homogenize our history into something its not? You may as well change the name of the city and nearly EVERY street name while your at it!
This falls just short of Fahrenheit 451. Just remember what George Santayana, who, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The teacher advocacated for a highly qualified black teacher from Cameroon (speaks 7 languages; undergrad studies in Europe; M.Ed.from ASU) targeted by district officials and Debbie Singleton, Spectrum Elementary principal and Vicki Hester, Meridian Elementary principal because of her accent. GPS knew the black teacher had an accent when she originally was hired -- GPS helped her with immigration matters back then! Years later when Tom Horne wanted to cleanse schools of persons who don't "talk right," GPS rose to the challenge and made the black teacher's life miserable. Associate Superintendent for Human Resources Nikki Blanchard misled the teacher into resigning as an English Language Learner Specialist and then marked her file "not eligible for rehire." Judicial decision at:
http://westernconnections.com/discrimination.html
When you hear that the federal government got the state of Arizona to stop targeting teachers with accents, remember that in Gilbert, the district stepped in when the state bowed out. It's still discrimination based on race and national origin, but it appears that GPS celebrates this sordid situation by protecting the high-level supervisors who discriminated and firing the young teacher who opposed it.