"The Naturalization Act excluded from citizenship all nonwhites, including Indians. Indians were considered domestic foreigners and, therefore, ineligible for citizenship" (Spring, pg 7) Breifly, can we talk about how insane this sounds? The two words domestic and foreigner even contradict each other...Finding excuses to segregate a culture that is different from the English culture. Wouldn't the English people be the foreigners?
The second article, The Indian Boarding Schools by Michele Bollinger really brings to light the mistreatment of Indians in school that were run by US government officials or Christian missionaries. During the time that these were open "generations of Indian children were traumatized by a number of barbaric practices employed by school officials; separation from family and community, child labor, physical torment, and sexual abuse. At the heart of these schools was a barbaric form of racism - one aimed to strip American Indians of any semblance of cultural identity, tradition, and spirituality" (Bollinger, pg 70) This brings me back to the point I made earlier about valuing each student's culture. While the education system today isn't using these barbaric practices I believe that there isn't enough being done to help facilitate the learning of the different cultures that makeup our state. Learning about the different cultures will help unify our community by sharing and acknowledging our commonalities. 
This quote also reminds me of "Thinking About Racial Dispartities in COVID-19 Impacts Through a Science-Informed, Early Childhood Lens" By Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. and David R. Williams, Ph.D. This article showed us that the susceptibility is influenced by the environments where we live. The Guardian article brought to light that "In Navajo Nation, for instance, one in three people so not have access to running water or electricity." Not having access to running water would prevent these individuals from being able to wash regularly and could help spread COVID-19 in Indian communities.
Reading this article reminded me of "Prison Policy Initiative" from last week and the disproportional representation of the the different races/ethnicity that are incarcerated compared to their percentage in the community. The Guardian article states that "In New Mexico, Native Americans make up less than 10% of the population but over one-third of coronavirus cases". Why are these numbers so disproportional? As a country, we need to do better than this but where do we start?
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ReplyDeleteHi, Haley! I apologize for commenting and then removing my comment. I realized I had mispelled your name and wanted to correct it, but Blogger didn't have a good way for me to correct it. I really feel like names are important, so I didn't want to have it wrong! I'm not sure if you were already able to see the other comments, but in case you didn't I'll try to retype them here.
ReplyDeleteI like how you ended with two questions. I think it is very valuable to ask why and what can we do/where do we start? To me, most world problems are like math problems. We start with an investigation of what we know and even what has been tried in the past then we think about possible paths to the solution. Sometimes we know the solution, sometimes we do not, but more often than not, our path is one that meanders. In math we often do scratch work on the side and then we come back and formalize the action. Sometimes we start out on one path recognize it is totally wrong, have to scrap it, and start over again. We are viewing the education of Native Americans in boarding schools through a historical lens--a lens which gives us a much better view than settlers in the US had at the time. Now we obviously see those methods were detrimental, but now we have to do something different. You mentioned needing to do more to now facilitate the learning of different groups in our classrooms. I've been specifically asking, "What does this look like in a math classroom?" One of my math professors pointed me to the work of Dave Kung http://www.davekung.com/dtk/Welcome.html when I told him I viewed my desire to teach math a way of helping provide a more just society. However, I think we can do more as math teachers than just give students math literacy. Radical Math http://www.radicalmath.org/main.php?id=SocialJusticeMath#3 has also given me much to think about in the ways I teach mathematics. Have you felt successful in incorporating different cultures in your math classes? --Michelle
Hi Haley! Thank you for your post. I really enjoyed reading about the connections that you made between the formation of the Anglo-American English only educational systems from the past and how this relates to the school systems in American today. I agree that the educational systems today impose the beliefs and aspects of the dominant culture. This means that many schools have adapted this subtractive bilingualism approach. The students' often acquire a second language at the expense of their home language. As an educator, I too believe that we need to work to incorporate the students' cultures and interests in the classroom so that they can see reflections of themselves in their work and can take pride in who they are.
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ReplyDeletethe quote "Believing that Anglo-American culture was the superior culture and the only culture that would support republican and democratic institutions, educators forbade speaking of non-English languages, particularly Spanish and Native American tongues, and forced students to learn an Anglo-American centered curriculum" was a harsh reality from American history. This is a trend that has continued to this date. It is a shame that Native American children and their families were forced to be treated by,as you said, barbaric practices employed by school officials. I am not a teacher, but as a school nurse I watch many students from different countries struggle with what is being taught to them. I have overheard other teachers insult these students stating that they are no longer in their country any more you need to do it my way. You are right we do need to value their cultures, and we can also learn from this. Again as a nurse it is my job as a professional to take care of everyone. It doesn't matter their race, culture, or how someone identifies. They all get the same care. It is horrible that the Native Americans are first not being identified properly and second not being tested for COVID 19. This is a very unsafe practice that should not be happening. I agree that as a country we do need to do better. Because of different "higher ups", the question is...how and when are we allowed to start. We need to work together and stop being divided.
Hi Haley--I really appreciate the connection you are making between deculturalization and subtractive bilingualism! There's actually more in Spring's book on this particular topic! Language is so integral to culture -- to destroy or marginalize the language practices of a group is indeed an attack on their culture, and schools all over the US are engaged in this daily. This has important implications for how we teach, both in ESL, bilingual ed, and in general ed classrooms. How can we teach in inclusive, culturally responsive/sustaining ways that push back against this linguistic violence?
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