TUSD Ethnic Studies and Mexican Border Security...no end in sight
It seems that the heated arguments over Ethnic Studies in the local school district will go on forever, no end in sight, no resolution, just screaming, dust and smoke, heat and light.
No one can step forward with the hope of drawing two sides together, pulling both parties to the table in hopes of sheding light on the hate and mistrust that seems a mile wide and endlessly deep, fostered over a hundred years or more by God knows what indignities.
The Mexican-Americans are as much a part of this community as are the white Anglos who extend as far back as the early settlers whose fore-fathers ploughed through gun-toting Indian tribes on the east end of the valley who tried to kill them as they passed through the Mountains. They came, they perserved, made a life and stayed. For nearly three hundred years, the two cultures learned to live with each other...or so one might think.
Now, Mexican-Americans in just this one, large school District demand public school studies around their ethnic background. Why the fuss? Years of Mexican America students that have belched out of the TUSD system have exhibited bad attitudes towards Anglo citizens, poor relations with their fellow Tucson Citizens of the white race, so much so, that, finally, the voting public voted a law - statewide - that said no school system can promote any education curriculum that caters to any specific ethnicity.
The attorney general, former state education head, now is enforcing it. Tucson is the only school district in the nation with such ETHNIC STUDIES program to my knowledge. It begs the question - why here?
My opinion: we need someone in the middle to suck the air out of the artgument, draw both sides together, deflate the pressure, potential violence, and hatred.
We need someone to negotiate, a "Henry Kissinger," if you will, to show the advantages of declaring a cease fire so both sides can see the wisdom of advancing forward for the common good of their children and the city.
One of the ways of clearing the air about ETHNIC STUDIES is to publish the lesson plans of the teachers. Much dust has been created about the alledged hatred promulgated in the classroom against the white population. Fine, let's read the lesson plans of the teachers and see for ourselves.
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No one can step forward with the hope of drawing two sides together, pulling both parties to the table in hopes of sheding light on the hate and mistrust that seems a mile wide and endlessly deep, fostered over a hundred years or more by God knows what indignities.
The Mexican-Americans are as much a part of this community as are the white Anglos who extend as far back as the early settlers whose fore-fathers ploughed through gun-toting Indian tribes on the east end of the valley who tried to kill them as they passed through the Mountains. They came, they perserved, made a life and stayed. For nearly three hundred years, the two cultures learned to live with each other...or so one might think.
Now, Mexican-Americans in just this one, large school District demand public school studies around their ethnic background. Why the fuss? Years of Mexican America students that have belched out of the TUSD system have exhibited bad attitudes towards Anglo citizens, poor relations with their fellow Tucson Citizens of the white race, so much so, that, finally, the voting public voted a law - statewide - that said no school system can promote any education curriculum that caters to any specific ethnicity.
The attorney general, former state education head, now is enforcing it. Tucson is the only school district in the nation with such ETHNIC STUDIES program to my knowledge. It begs the question - why here?
My opinion: we need someone in the middle to suck the air out of the artgument, draw both sides together, deflate the pressure, potential violence, and hatred.
We need someone to negotiate, a "Henry Kissinger," if you will, to show the advantages of declaring a cease fire so both sides can see the wisdom of advancing forward for the common good of their children and the city.
One of the ways of clearing the air about ETHNIC STUDIES is to publish the lesson plans of the teachers. Much dust has been created about the alledged hatred promulgated in the classroom against the white population. Fine, let's read the lesson plans of the teachers and see for ourselves.
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