Extra Credit: Precious Knowledge
Kara Knauf
December 11, 2015
Extra Credit: Precious Knowledge
The film Precious Knowledge is about the Mexican American Studies program in the public school system in Tucson, Arizona. The film provides insight on how minority students in the Tucson Unified School District are being treated in public schools. The film highlights four students and their classmates in a struggle against the banning of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District. The state of Arizona tries to pass laws that will eliminate the program because they believe the program is turning students against the United States, even though the classes were judged without a deep investigation. Precious Knowledge …show more content…
Armstrong, Henson, and Savage state that “ it is popular to portray teachers in a minority and low-socioeconomic status schools as uncaring and “burned out”, the fact is that many teachers in these schools are committed to the students they teach” (263) I feel like that is a popular opinion that teachers in low income high schools are not as good compared to teachers at private schools or high income public schools. That is the same opinion the politicians had because in the film when one of the politicians visited the class he was glad to see the teacher in a collar shirt and tie but wasn’t sure if he dressed like that everyday. This could be a reason that nobody went and checked out the classes before making a public announcement saying the classes are un-American. The idea that the teachers at this low income school are committed to educating their students was lost on the people who created the law. Throughout the film I did not hear one solid reason as to why the government thought that the Raza studies program was teaching students to hate America. Since the subject is about Mexico of course the subject matter wouldn’t be about the US. Also the fact that stated most of the students couldn’t pass an American history exam or they didn’t know American history was an unimportant fact because most students don’t remember subject matter from past years. If the government wanted that to be a major point they should have gone to other schools and see if the students at the Tucson schools in the Raza studies classes are below other schools or school districts in American history knowledge. That could have proven a point but I remember from watching the video that I don’t even remember most of what I learned in AP US
Kara Knauf
December 11, 2015
Extra Credit: Precious Knowledge
The film Precious Knowledge is about the Mexican American Studies program in the public school system in Tucson, Arizona. The film provides insight on how minority students in the Tucson Unified School District are being treated in public schools. The film highlights four students and their classmates in a struggle against the banning of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District. The state of Arizona tries to pass laws that will eliminate the program because they believe the program is turning students against the United States, even though the classes were judged without a deep investigation. Precious Knowledge …show more content…
Armstrong, Henson, and Savage state that “ it is popular to portray teachers in a minority and low-socioeconomic status schools as uncaring and “burned out”, the fact is that many teachers in these schools are committed to the students they teach” (263) I feel like that is a popular opinion that teachers in low income high schools are not as good compared to teachers at private schools or high income public schools. That is the same opinion the politicians had because in the film when one of the politicians visited the class he was glad to see the teacher in a collar shirt and tie but wasn’t sure if he dressed like that everyday. This could be a reason that nobody went and checked out the classes before making a public announcement saying the classes are un-American. The idea that the teachers at this low income school are committed to educating their students was lost on the people who created the law. Throughout the film I did not hear one solid reason as to why the government thought that the Raza studies program was teaching students to hate America. Since the subject is about Mexico of course the subject matter wouldn’t be about the US. Also the fact that stated most of the students couldn’t pass an American history exam or they didn’t know American history was an unimportant fact because most students don’t remember subject matter from past years. If the government wanted that to be a major point they should have gone to other schools and see if the students at the Tucson schools in the Raza studies classes are below other schools or school districts in American history knowledge. That could have proven a point but I remember from watching the video that I don’t even remember most of what I learned in AP US