To start with, the author seems to have skillfully thought on the front cover which is actually displaying the true reflection of education in America during the era of great racial discrimination. The author’s perspective in writing this book was to speak out the issues affecting the African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Native Americans especially in regard to education, legal laws, culture and social construction due to racial discrimination (Anglo American racism).
The end result was to be able to speak on behalf of this minority group in America and to expand the student notions of what education in United States has been and is. Another perspective was to uncover and emphasize the fact that most nations are multicultural having schools that must deal with multiple languages and cultures.
He also wanted to bring out how the dominant Anglo class has taken away the culture of minority peoples in the U. S. and replaced it with their dominant culture. Since I just had an overview of the book, I think questions raised here may include: Most students spent several years schooling, devoting countless hours to studies, and eventually being successful in navigating the difficulties of formal education. Why did they have to do all these? What was the purpose of schooling? What are they educated to and to be? Was it worth it?
Majorly, this reading helps me to clearly analyze and know the reasons for schooling especially by the minorities in America, discovering that Native Americans and African-Americans have endured on-going struggles to ensure their equal rights with the American public education system. The freed Africans in America also developed their own culture, one of resistance against the discrimination and segregation with which they were constantly faced. Hence education was the only means of fighting the injustices the U. S. minority tolerated.
In reviewing historical and contemporary policies, ideologies, and educational prescriptions for language-minority students, I have noticed that language and literacy policies historically have been used as instruments of social control and that racism and linguistic intolerance have often been closely linked with antecedents in the colonial and early nationalist periods as well as in nativity thought of the 19th century. Recent research on high-stakes testing is reviewed with the conclusion that it is not improving the quality of teaching and learning and appears to be having a negative effect for language-minority students.
If I may ask, why is it necessary to look at this struggle for equality of minorities? This is not a problem that can be ignored or overlooked. America is a democracy; everyone is supposed to be equal to everyone else. Investigation of these groups that are struggling for equality of their ideas and philosophies make it evident that there is not an equal opportunity for every one within the American Public Education system. The list of minorities in the United States who have long struggled for integration within the public school system goes on; Asian Americans, Latino-Americans, and others have fought this battle for equality.
It may seem that once full integration of the public school system has been achieved, the battle for equality has been won. However, the struggle for equality still continues. In conclusion, I believe, the world is a place of diversity, but it is also a global village. It should be stressed that we should be teaching children not only to respect each other's differences, but to encourage them, for individual differences will help everyone benefit.
