Chronology of Events:
I am still amazed how although we have progressed
since 1663 when Reverend John Eliot was helped by the Indian translator to
publish the New Testament how now in 2018 there is such a lack of resources for
the Indian population and let’s not forget how they are trying to be wiped off
the face of this earth too. The list of
events in this chapter are mindboggling to me, I can not believe how much
progress has been made, but the ignorance is still prevalent. For instance, on page 88 of our text refers
to in our present time that “English only teaching” still dominates Indian
education. That is a disadvantage to the
native Indians and it is unfair.
The history of the African-Americans is wretched
and I cannot even begin to describe the injustices that were done to them back
then and even today I see it in the school everyday. The African –Americans were treated as second-class
citizens and with all of the segregation going on after World War I it was hard
for our Black-American children to be treated fairly and the education was
limited to those teaching them as well. Thankfully, today there are many
changes in place and although we are not where we want to be in today’s
society, we certainly are not where we used to be and much progress has come
for our African-American students and more of them are going to and graduating
college too and that is exciting for all of our minority students.
As a Puerto Rican woman, I wasn’t surprised to
read that the Americans only considered for it’s rich resources, that is why it
is called, “Puerto Rico” that is translated into “Rich Port!” Today, I am proud to say that Puerto Ricans
are United States Citizens, but it wasn’t that easy for my ancestors to say and
unfortunately the students that are not English speakers are finding it hard to
learn another language and apply it to their everyday lives. I found it
difficult to read that the Anglo-Americans mistreated and were hostile towards
children in the classroom. (p. 89) How could the Spanish speaking children read
the “mandated contents” if they would not be taught how to read and write in
English? Once the Puerto Ricans did make
it over to New York City or other states, they had to deal with overcrowding of
the schools, which led to another challenge in our educational system.
Today, in our high school we have 4-5 families
that are Hurricane Maria victims and although Puerto Rico does teach English in
the schools, I noticed we have 2 families that are high up in the mountains and
the teaching there is scarce. Those
students are labeled as “retarded” because they did not attend schools with the
basic educational foundations that Puerto Rican students have in the other
parts of the island. So our challenge to
provide these fewer families support and resources is very difficult, because
the child is in a high school reading at a 1st or 2nd
grade level in Spanish, let alone being able to read any English.
