The unique proposition and experience
of Semillas has been influential in both local and international educational
spheres. Since Semillas first challenged the local school district to enrich
educational offerings in our communities, there has been a blossoming of
Chinese language programs, dual language programs, International Baccalaureate
programs and even Aztec dance programs in surrounding schools. Semillas has
been at the vanguard of this positive educational development in our
communities. Nevertheless, the educational disadvantages present when we first
opened under the trees of El Sereno Park, persist in ways, some believe, too
deeply rooted to overcome through a single program, policy or even civil rights
investigation.
To be sure, in 2011, the Office of Civil Rights of the U. S.
Department of Education memorialized the systemic educational discrimination
prevalent for ‘English Learners’ in the LAUSD.[1]
Given that of the LAUSD’s almost 500,000 students identified as ‘Latinos’
(about 75% of all LAUSD students), around 200,000 of which are Spanish speakers
classified as ‘English Learners’ (or 93% of all ‘English Learners’), the
moniker of ‘English Learners’ is certainly a euphemism for the District’s
massive Latino student population overall.[2]
This is important because the main concern of the Department of Education’s
Office of Civil Rights findings was the so-called ‘achievement gap’ between
Whites and targeted minorities, not the real educational discrimination
reflected by multigenerational levels of institutional failure which have
created a school to prison pipeline for Los Angeles youth in general, and for
Mexican youth in particular. Yet, the final OCR LAUSD Resolution interestingly
omits any factors evidencing discrimination based upon national origin.
Semillas stands in stark contrast to
this reality. Semillas schools began as pilot projects and as community-based
schools in an area that serves predominantly Mexican-origin children. Similar
to what has been called for by the OCR for African-American students, the
purpose of the Semillas pilot school project is (a) to increase access to
educational and non‐educational
resources and services, including health and social services, and engage the
community in improving student achievement, and (b) to develop a successful,
sustainable and replicable model for addressing the academic achievement gap
that supports the improvement of indigenous students’ academic and intellectual
development.[3]
This unique approach to the cultural heritage of Indigenous children from
multiple national origins, but predominantly for those of Mexican national
origin, defines the strength of mission and character Semillas has become known
for across the continent.
Times keep getting tougher. According
to an analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau by the Pew Hispanic
Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, in 2010, 37.3% of poor children
were Latino, 30.5% were white and 26.6% were black. Accounting for the fact
that there are four times as many white people in the United States as there
are ‘Latinos’, the percentage is grossly disproportionate.[4] In light of this
fact, the achievement gap becomes readily re-defined as one of a struggle for
human survival for children facing both economic and intellectual subjugation.
For Indigenous people however, this struggle is for more than bread and water,
it is a struggle for self-determination and ‘survivance’: “the human drive for
education and the important purpose of exposing worldviews and epistemologies
in education”.[5]
Herein lies the potential resource multilingual children represent to their own
communities and the world when cultivated to empower their language knowledge
sets and skills as both social and economic assets.
In the context of entrenched
institutional discrimination and increased socio-economic marginalization,
Semillas proposes Xinaxcalmecac and Anahuacalmecac as community centers for the
renaissance of Indigenous childhood, intellect, language, and socio-political
empowerment. Renowned Pueblo scholar, Dr. Gregory Cajete of the University of
New Mexico, writes that, “Modern education continues to be a major source of
discontinuity. Traditional learning and culture have been generally ignored
which has oftentimes been translated by Native American students as a rejection
of both themselves and their cultures.”[6]
Indigenous students, Dr. Cajete goes on to underscore, then ‘turn off and tune
out’. The proposal then of this charter is that schooling, curricula and school
culture must relate to Indigenous learners as purposeful and important. Most
importantly, education must become a dynamic process that engages Indigenous
children in the acts of inquiry, creation, and transformation.
[1] http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-announces-resolution-civil-rights-investigation-los-angeles
[2] According
to the CDE’s Dataquest website, “Data for this district is not
available since this district did not complete and certify the Spring 2010-11
CALPADS Data Submission. Therefore English learner (EL) data by language or
Fluent-English Proficient (FEP) data by language are not available.” In a year
when the Office of Civil Rights is investigating the educational discrimination
of English Language learners this seems like an unconscionable omission of
data. Nevertheless, this data was retrievable from:
http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/App_Resx/EdDataClassic/fsTwoPanel.aspx?#!bottom=/_layouts/EdDataClassic/profile.asp?tab=1&level=06&ReportNumber=16&County=19&fyr=1011&District=64733#studentsbyrace/ethnicity.
[3] http://www.nabe.org/files/Resolutions_summary_LAUSD.pdf
[4] http://www.pewhispanic.org/2011/09/28/childhood-poverty-among-hispanics-sets-record-leads-nation/
[5] Villegas,
M., Rak Neugebauer, S., & Venegas, K. Editor’s Introduction: Indigenous
Knowledge and Education, Sites of Struggle, Strength and Survivance. Harvard
Educational Review. 2008.
[6]
Cajete, G. Igniting the Sparkle, An Indigenous Science Education
Model. UNM. 1999.
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