The reading "White Supremacy, Neo/Colonial Education, and The struggle for Precious Knowledge," explains and challenges the concept of white supremacy in relation to Mexican American Studies. In MAS, students are taught about their culture, how to respect others, take pride in their heritage but above all, how to love. Having these awarenesses about oneself is crucial and a determining force for social justice. For that reason, MAS is precious while also a threat to certain lawmakers.
In MAS, teachers implement critically compassionate intellectualism (CCI) which is an approach to interacting with students: "CCI draws from the ethics of care in educational literature that proposes that caring in schools should be relational and reciprocal, and that love is a way of living with others in the world" (188). Throughout Precious Knowledge, the teachers and students reiterate the fact that MAS has helped them appreciate school more because they have a sense of community. This community is enhanced through love and support for one another. For this reason, the Mexican American Studies program is considered precious.
Not until a white-man comes into the scene do things seem to get misinterpreted. This reading brings some light to why people feel threatened by the MAS program. Tom Horne, John Huppenthal and other Republican legislators feel offended by the program because they believe the classes, "...indoctrinate students with anti-American seditious, collectivistic sentiments, and a race-conscious 'tribal' ideology" (183). The law-makers are not aware of what is being taught in the classes and do not want to believe it is about love and acceptance. They are hooked on the image of MAS for all they see is a group of minority students gathering and taking pride in their culture. I would argue the knowledge the students are learning is threatening to the white supremacists because they are afraid of change. As the reading put it, these law-makers are concerned with "normalizing, neutralizing, and naturalizing" people through education. I would also argue, these law-makers are more concerned with their own power and unconsciously (maybe consciously) they want people to remain uneducated because if they were critical of their environment, those students would make sure racists law-makers would not have power. Of course, this is just my own theory that is clearly biased.
In Ayers' reading, "Teaching for Justice and Care," I think he just summarized everything we have theorized in class but in a must less complicated way. With that being said, I agree with him in his solutions to helping education. He claims educational resources must be distributed fairly and that people need to find a common cause between students and adults. As mentioned in Precious Knowledge students do not have issues with learning, they have issues with the schools or the system of schooling. What is the purpose of education? Students in high school and middle school may answer very differently compared to their parents or Ph.D. students. Ayers is arguing we need to find a common reason for why education is important. I completely agree with this because for a long period in my life, I only viewed education as mandatory and necessary to be "successful" in life. I chose my field of study because I know I will have a steady income of money when I graduate from graduate school. Right now, money and success seem to be driving, not only myself but, a majority of people in America. This mindset needs to change and to do so, we need to consider different ideas of what education is for.
Ayers, W. (2004). Teaching for justice and care. Teaching the personal and political: Essays on hope and justice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
García, J., Urrieta Jr., L., & Bybee, E.R. (2015). White supremacy, neo/colonial education, and the struggle for Precious Knowledge. In D.P. Liston & I.P. Renga (Eds.) Teaching, learning, and schooling in film: Reel education. New York, NY: Routledge.
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