Saturday, November 19, 2011

Arizona educators clash over Mexican American studies - latimes.com

Arizona educators clash over Mexican American studies - latimes.com: Arizona's public schools chief had heard unsettling reports about what was being taught in the Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American studies program and decided to see for himself.

As he sat in on a Chicano literature class, Supt. John Huppenthal noticed an image of Che Guevera hanging on a wall and listened to a lecturer cast Benjamin Franklin as a racist.

And though teacher Curtis Acosta did not directly portray Mexican Americans as an oppressed minority, he discussed educational theorist Paulo Freire and his "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," which the Tucson High Magnet School students used as a textbook. To Huppenthal, the message was clear and disturbing.