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| Intervention by the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus UNPFII New York, NY 2013 |
The parent-led petition to renew the east Los Angeles-based charter high school, Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School of North America, offers a remarkable commentary on the persistent efforts of Mexican and Indigenous parents to secure a quality education for their children. Yet, the petition to allow Anahuacalmecac to continue to offer an innovative, internationally-recognized, multilingual curriculum is under threat of denial by the Los Angeles Unified School District. By denying the charter, LAUSD bureaucrats will demonstrate that they place little value upon the college and international preparatory curriculum, and the proven outcomes Anahuacalmecac students have achieved. This is no small act on the part of the country's second largest school district because it perpetuates colonial logics of control over knowledge espoused by the Doctrine of Discovery and other neocolonial instruments of colonization, domination, and deculturalization of indigenous children across the hemisphere. Anahuacalmecac was organized by a parent and teacher led grassroots movement to address the needs of children of indigenous families of Mexican, Central American origin. Los Angeles, California is home to the largest population of peoples indigenous to Anahuac (North America). Our school is located in nican chanehqueh Gabrielino Tongva territory. In 2002 the Semillas del Pueblo family of schools was founded with the blessings of Gabrielino-Shoshone Chief Yaana Vera Rocha and is culturally guided by Azteca elder Tata Cuaxtle Felix Evodio and Gabrielino-Tongva Spiritual leader, Jimmy Castillo. For decades upon decades, schools in Los Angeles inadequately addressed the history, culture and knowledge of indigenous peoples, much less serve the needs of any indigenous children well.
This is a lot to chew on for your average educational bureaucrat. If ignorance alone was what was to be confronted, one could almost be sure Semillas proponents would have long ago resolved the ineptitudes of the technocrats. Semillas schools demonstrate great success with students that "public schools" simply do not serve well. However, it has become clear that the motivation behind antagonists within the LAUSD is fueled by the hatred emanating from outside of LAUSD, kindled by a resource rich, information poor, right-wing campaign to disgrace and destroy the idea that Mexicano people in the United States include Indigenous Peoples, and that our existence predates the novelty of the American state and that our trajectory is millenarian and inter-related with that of all other indigenous peoples anywhere in this continent. Despite academic success, our students face school closure in a process that does not consider the needs and voices of children and their families. Even as hate mongers target our schools and community with overt acts of hatred, the LAUSD and other educational authoritarians seek a sheep's clothing to hide the wolf of ”educational success”: high stakes testing.
How can Native charter schools help indigenous students escape the chains of high-stakes consequences and the reservation of 19th century educational models when even some charter school proponents are in line with the dominant society’s educational institutions upholding the false supremacy of standards-based exams in English-only? Will modern educational and political mainstream institutions understand the notion of autonomous indigenous educational experiences which do not seek to conform to the bankruptcy of western schooling? How does public schooling serve to benefit or counteract the interests and aspirations of indigenous peoples, particularly migrant indigenous peoples living in urban centers of the U.S.? In a recent interview on 'Native America Calling', Dr. Mary Anne Belgarde, Co-Founder of the Native American Alliance of Charter Schools points out that native charter schools provide the only option currently available to native peoples by offering for the development of curriculum and a local community-based school board to protect that curriculum. Dr. Belgarde notes as an indigenous person that, "we know what we want in our school" (http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/nac_past.shtml#apr).
Noam Chomsky, recently presented an argument about modern American schooling in an interview circulated on truthout.org ( http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16651-noam-chomsky-on-democracy-and-education-in-the-21st-century-and-beyond). Chomsky aptly states, "public education was, in fact, concerned with trying to teach independent people to become workers in an industrial system". Even worse, it should be clear that among indigenous peoples, education was not simply a cultural-economic shift but a major element of the colonization, and domination of indigenous peoples. So, what about public education are we supposed to defend? Can school officials seriously portend that in the U.S. the the economic democratization of society is made possible through greater access to the limited resources of higher education? Does not LAUSD’s actions exemplify the disingenuous prospect of political democratization through "education"? What, if anything at all, about modern schooling is redeemable? Certainly education, for indigenous peoples, especially non-recognized indigenous peoples, should further the right to learn maternal language and culture in an autonomous environment with teachers who shepherd collectively a creative, strategic, community-based education, a farther reaching prospect than what Dewey, or even Freire imagined. At Semillas we do dare dream.
Education among indigenous peoples should reflect planning according to the time of the mountain. What many today refer to as "permaculture" and "sustainability," offers an entirely native concept and practice for indigenous Mexicans, wherein humanizing and democratizing education grows from ancestral knowledge of permaculture and the cosmos. A student cultivated through such a practice should both reflect an intellectual questioning of dominant economic-political-culture as well as creative agency on behalf of and in service to one's people, community and humanity. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls for nation-state governments to, "in conjunction with indigenous peoples, take effective measures, in order for indigenous individuals, particularly children, including those living outside their communities, to have access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own language". For over ten years, In spite of an ongoing political and economic backlash, Semillas has proposed to our own community and to others that the charter school legal mechanism can become a powerful "measure" by which to establish and develop autonomous and autochthonous indigenous education.
In March 2013, the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues published a report on an international expert group meeting titled, ‘Indigenous youth: identity, challenges and hope: articles 14, 17, 21 and 25 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’. Among the eighty-five conclusions and recommendations made, one core finding stands out addressing the impact of dominant institutions of schooling upon indigenous youth: “A major challenge for indigenous youth is education, which has an influential role in shaping identity. There is a danger that the educational system and curriculum will be used as a way of indoctrinating indigenous youth with the dominant culture while denying them access to their indigenous culture. It is therefore important to foster educational systems that make it possible for indigenous youth to have separate educational policies, plans and curricula based on their needs...” (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/C.19/2013/3). In the U.S., charter schools are one possible “educational system” which can change this paradigm. Yet, while charter schools pose one solution to Native American communities seeking a quality education for their youth, many native schools experience impediments to their success. For example, how do native teachers learn to teach through native pedagogy, to design curriculum with a native epistemology, and to live life as a wise cultural guide? According to a recent study published by the National Indian Education Association, "Despite the advantages charter schools promise, there are also considerable challenges and potential disadvantages to using charter models for educating Native students," (from 'For this place for these people'). The study which sought "best practices among charter schools serving native students," goes on to highlight the limitations imposed upon autonomous schools by federal and state educational mandates:
In March 2013, the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues published a report on an international expert group meeting titled, ‘Indigenous youth: identity, challenges and hope: articles 14, 17, 21 and 25 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’. Among the eighty-five conclusions and recommendations made, one core finding stands out addressing the impact of dominant institutions of schooling upon indigenous youth: “A major challenge for indigenous youth is education, which has an influential role in shaping identity. There is a danger that the educational system and curriculum will be used as a way of indoctrinating indigenous youth with the dominant culture while denying them access to their indigenous culture. It is therefore important to foster educational systems that make it possible for indigenous youth to have separate educational policies, plans and curricula based on their needs...” (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/C.19/2013/3). In the U.S., charter schools are one possible “educational system” which can change this paradigm. Yet, while charter schools pose one solution to Native American communities seeking a quality education for their youth, many native schools experience impediments to their success. For example, how do native teachers learn to teach through native pedagogy, to design curriculum with a native epistemology, and to live life as a wise cultural guide? According to a recent study published by the National Indian Education Association, "Despite the advantages charter schools promise, there are also considerable challenges and potential disadvantages to using charter models for educating Native students," (from 'For this place for these people'). The study which sought "best practices among charter schools serving native students," goes on to highlight the limitations imposed upon autonomous schools by federal and state educational mandates:
"The high-stakes accountability of charters may conflict with cultural norms of indigenous communities. A narrow focus on standardized testing turns attentions away from the most critical elements of culturally-respected education (Cockrell, 1992). Furthermore, testing highlights the weaknesses of Native students without fully capturing their true strengths (Commission on Civil Rights, 2003). Recruiting indigenous teachers and administrators for indigenous charter schools may also be impeded by a relatively small population of Native college graduates qualified to serve as teachers (Demmert & Towner, 2003). Further contributing to hiring challenges may be the difficulty of recruiting non-Native teachers with a culturally-responsive orientation (DeVoe & Darling-Churchill, 2008)."
To be clear, it is not the charter school mechanism, nor the autonomy of local community-based governance, or even the culturally-relevant curriculum that limits the number of charter schools working on behalf of Native communities. Instead, federal and state English-only policies imposed upon indigenous peoples generate the greatest restrictions upon projects for native educational autonomy. Moreover, the standard institutions of schooling that defenders of "public education" continue to uphold offers little hope. To whit the Los Angeles Times and the LA Weekly both recently lambasted Semillas and our educational leadership for successfully defending our learning community in a public hearing to deny the charter and close the school. Semillas and our allies were targeted unfairly and accused of manipulating the public process.
The 2012 NIEA study goes on to note:
"The current state of Native education reflects school systems’ failure to promote Native student academic success. Currently, the vast majority of Native students are attending public school, with only 7% attending Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools (Executive order 13592, 2011), but evidence suggests that public schools are not meeting the needs of Native students. As a result, American Indian students have the highest absentee rate (66%) and 2nd-highest suspension rate (7.7%), and the 2nd-highest drop out rate (15%) (Henson, 2008). Many students also experience difficulty relating to teachers, feelings of isolation, racism, and intercultural misunderstanding (Jacob et al, 2003). Parents’ negative school experience may also contribute to this alienation. One study reports that parents may have had negative school experiences, or may experience racism or miscommunication that might also contribute to students’ dissonance in school (Lara, NIEA, & NEA, 2011)."
The solution for our school in the short-term is simple. The community-based petition to renew the charter of Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School of North America should be approved by the Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles (LAUSD) on June 18, 2013. The innovative and distinguishing qualities of Anahuacalmecac should be considered as positive advances to the idea and practice of schooling in our communities. Certainly, state mandated academic requirements for renewal, which Anahuacalmecac exceeds, continue to present an ideological barrier to the concept of "academic success". To wit, national organizations concerned with indigenous education such as the NIEA, have noted that federally mandated high-stakes measures of academic quality jeopardize the opportunities available to indigenous communities. And yet, the Semillas community’s perseverance contradicts the pragmatism of self-defeatism. In fact, the Semillas experience rejects the illogical assumption that forcing all children to speak only English as a PRECONDITION to higher order thinking, inquiry and enriched education is itself the racism of the modern harsh reality for most English Learners of all national origins in Los Angeles.
Contrary to the liberal mantra of the "soft racism of low expectations", Anahuacalmecac confronts the specter of the overt imposition of colonial indoctrination as a "civil right". Allies, both indigenous and non-indigenous, should understand, indigenous peoples should not be instruments of the on-going cultural genocide of indigenous cultures, peoples and ways of life. Outside Semillas, in Los Angeles and elsewhere, public schooling leaves our children with two choices, to either forget community identity and maternal language in order to succeed in school, or reject school entirely and fill the slave-wage factories of the state called prisons. Recently, in Minnesota, the now celebrated Chippewa student valedictorian Victoria Gokee-Rindal captured the sentiment of a generation questioning, "Why is it that Native students of the Bayfield School District are made to feel like they have to check their Indian-ness at the door?” she asked in her address, also asserting that teachers who stood up for Native American students were treated with disrespect for that support." Those that navigate between this dichotomy often survive with little sense of community left intact, while others of course are the exception to the rule.
For over ten years, Semillas has presented a third option, a parallel path to education grounded in culture AND international studies guided by best practices from among indigenous peoples throughout the world. An education filled with inquiry, begins with the adults in the process who must question authority, question reality, question the norm. To avoid this imperative, is itself a disservice to our children, community and future. Indeed the "soft racism" of low expectations may well be a reality in most of modern schooling, but there is nothing soft about it. In fact the hard realities of indigenous children and youth, be they of northern central or southern hemispheric origin, continue to challenge the outdated model of schooling. Yet, the innovations in education today seem to be only available to those who are deemed worthy of it: the English dominant, the acquiescent, or the self-assimilationists willing to accept modern deculturalization in exchange for a crumb of the table of the social data masters.
In April 2012, Semillas won a hard fought battle to renew the charter of the city of Los Angeles' first indigenous charter school and first International Baccalaureate World School. Overcoming enormous odds against the overbearing weight of the technocrats in LAUSD, the Semillas community and educational leadership were able to convince the Board of Education to reverse their staff recommendation and vote in favor of the renewal and expansion of Xinaxcalmecac Academia Semillas del Pueblo. The Board motion set an important precedent. The renewal stated:
For over ten years, Semillas has presented a third option, a parallel path to education grounded in culture AND international studies guided by best practices from among indigenous peoples throughout the world. An education filled with inquiry, begins with the adults in the process who must question authority, question reality, question the norm. To avoid this imperative, is itself a disservice to our children, community and future. Indeed the "soft racism" of low expectations may well be a reality in most of modern schooling, but there is nothing soft about it. In fact the hard realities of indigenous children and youth, be they of northern central or southern hemispheric origin, continue to challenge the outdated model of schooling. Yet, the innovations in education today seem to be only available to those who are deemed worthy of it: the English dominant, the acquiescent, or the self-assimilationists willing to accept modern deculturalization in exchange for a crumb of the table of the social data masters.
In April 2012, Semillas won a hard fought battle to renew the charter of the city of Los Angeles' first indigenous charter school and first International Baccalaureate World School. Overcoming enormous odds against the overbearing weight of the technocrats in LAUSD, the Semillas community and educational leadership were able to convince the Board of Education to reverse their staff recommendation and vote in favor of the renewal and expansion of Xinaxcalmecac Academia Semillas del Pueblo. The Board motion set an important precedent. The renewal stated:
"Staff will work with school on assessments and report back to the Board in 2 years on alternative assessment and school progress"
The unique intent of this directive made by the Board of Education, was to capture our schools' distinguishing and innovative qualities and academic achievements. Among these are the multilingual program from kinder through the 12th grade, which offers all students access to maternal language education, particularly education in Nahuatl the heritage language of the majority of the Mexican indigenous students in the school. Semillas students have access to a world renowned international curriculum that is centered upon inquiry as a methodology, opening young minds and bridges to continents across the seas and across the streets typically ignored in the highly segregated metropolis that is Los Angeles. In partnership with two distinguished schools of education in Los Angeles, Semillas provides engagement in critical and culturally rooted pedagogy for educators all too often ill-prepared to teach in inner-city schools through partnerships with two major schools of education in Los Angeles. Among the largest clubs in Anahuacalmecac are not only the Aztec Dance circle, but also Model United Nations and Gay Straight Alliance, reflective of the most embracing community of youth I have ever witnessed in twenty years of work as an educator.
To paraphrase LAUSD Board member Zimmer's intervention in the hearing to close the charter of XASP at the recommendation of the District technocrats, LAUSD and indeed the country, does not currently have a valid method by which to assess charter school progress beyond high stakes measures straight from the draconian and outdated No Child Left Behind playbook or the outgoing president's ridiculous "Race to the Top". California Charter School Law and federal guidelines asserting parent rights to choice reinforce the educational design implemented by Semillas. Accordingly, Semillas yields demonstrably better gains in academic performance and other metrics vis a vis the LAUSD comparable schools in our analysis. According to the District's own model of school performance evaluation called "Aggregate Growth over Time", Semillas students outperform their peers in comparable resident schools students would have otherwise attended, and as compared to the District's own dual immersion or two-way immersion program schools in wealthier communities. K-12 attendance rates in Semillas are among the highest typically sustained at well above 95% even in high school. Graduation rates for our first graduating class in 2012 exemplify the Semillas success story. After ten long years of work with the dozens of students who enrolled in the third grade, all students graduated college eligible having completed the California A-G requirements of the University of California system. Of these over 80% are enrolled in college. At neighboring schools in East Los Angeles, 60% graduate at best, roughly 25% graduate college eligible, and only half actually go on to college. The harsh reality for kids in East Los Angeles, is the cold embrace of the street or a prison cell and months if not years of adult unemployment. In fact, Anahuacalmecac is the only public high school in our neighborhood NOT in Program Improvement.
Yet, there is hope. From May 16 to May 22, 2013, four young indigenous women and student leaders from Anahuacalmecac traveled to New York to participate in the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as a part of the Global Indigenous Women's Caucus, the Global Indigenous Peoples' Caucus and the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. This delegation of students prepared for over four years for this experience by participating in training sessions in Model United Nations conferences hosted by the University of California, Los Angeles, and through participation in a 'Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery' Conference at Arizona State University in April 2013. Importantly, these young leaders have also been trained through traditional ceremonies held for our schools and community. All four delegates participated in a unique course in Anahuacalmecac called Huehuetlamachilistle on Traditional Aztec Knowledge which is comparable to a college level cultural anthropology course. Three of the young women are life-long students of Anahuacalmecac's Nahuatl Language and Culture programs. One of the students is a Zapoteca delegate of her community originally form Oaxaca, Mexico.
Anahuacalmecac's students and their teacher chaperones presented various interventions to the Permanent Forum, its members and the multiple preparatory caucuses of indigenous peoples assembled to address the issues and demands of indigenous peoples around the world. Serving both as translators and spokespersons, the student delegates thrived in a real environment, addressing real needs. They embodied the interdependent relationship between education, youth, language and culture. Far from a stale lesson in "facing history", our students were front and center as indigenous women from both Guatemala and El Salvador decried the atrocities committed by U.S. backed dictators and scorched earth policies. Our students learned how as a result of the violence of war in their home countries, Mayan and Pipil indigenous families were forced to seek refuge in the very country causing all of this torment. Eventually these families settled in Los Angeles. Our students thrived in this environment attuned to the harsh realities of the world but engaging in dialogues intended to generate peace, understanding, and justice. There were no golden medals, no blue ribbons, and no shiny certificates. Just the lessons earned by a week of engagement in the global actualities other kids may ignore as they surf through a hundred channels or messages on their cell phones.
Yet, there is hope. From May 16 to May 22, 2013, four young indigenous women and student leaders from Anahuacalmecac traveled to New York to participate in the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as a part of the Global Indigenous Women's Caucus, the Global Indigenous Peoples' Caucus and the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. This delegation of students prepared for over four years for this experience by participating in training sessions in Model United Nations conferences hosted by the University of California, Los Angeles, and through participation in a 'Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery' Conference at Arizona State University in April 2013. Importantly, these young leaders have also been trained through traditional ceremonies held for our schools and community. All four delegates participated in a unique course in Anahuacalmecac called Huehuetlamachilistle on Traditional Aztec Knowledge which is comparable to a college level cultural anthropology course. Three of the young women are life-long students of Anahuacalmecac's Nahuatl Language and Culture programs. One of the students is a Zapoteca delegate of her community originally form Oaxaca, Mexico.
Anahuacalmecac's students and their teacher chaperones presented various interventions to the Permanent Forum, its members and the multiple preparatory caucuses of indigenous peoples assembled to address the issues and demands of indigenous peoples around the world. Serving both as translators and spokespersons, the student delegates thrived in a real environment, addressing real needs. They embodied the interdependent relationship between education, youth, language and culture. Far from a stale lesson in "facing history", our students were front and center as indigenous women from both Guatemala and El Salvador decried the atrocities committed by U.S. backed dictators and scorched earth policies. Our students learned how as a result of the violence of war in their home countries, Mayan and Pipil indigenous families were forced to seek refuge in the very country causing all of this torment. Eventually these families settled in Los Angeles. Our students thrived in this environment attuned to the harsh realities of the world but engaging in dialogues intended to generate peace, understanding, and justice. There were no golden medals, no blue ribbons, and no shiny certificates. Just the lessons earned by a week of engagement in the global actualities other kids may ignore as they surf through a hundred channels or messages on their cell phones.
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