Tucson Unified School District banned several books relating to Mexican-American studies; was this act on purpose or done to stay within state regulations? This is the question many Americans, of all races, are asking school officials’. Earlier this month the Tucson Unified School District ended the 13-year-old program in an attempt to come into compliance with the heated state ban on the teaching of ethnic studies.
According to school officials’ books will be boxed up and sent to storage, however some books will still be available in the on campus library. Many of the books that are well know classics where banned from classrooms such as, “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years” by Tucson author Leslie Silko, Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by famous Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña, and “Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement” by Arturo Rosales.
Within the article it stated that, “Administrators informed Mexican-American studies teachers to stay away from any units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes.” In a school district that was founded by Mexican-Americans and which more than 60 percent of the students come from Mexican-American backgrounds, to avoid their culture is not only insentive but an ignorant decision. How can you not acknowledge what the Mexican American community endured but still demand their respect. To truly become confident I believe one must know their origins.
As Bigelow, a famous author, stated “What is the Tucson school district afraid of?
Source: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/whos_afraid_of_the_tempest/singleton/
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