Poll: Should Schools Teach Ethnic Studies?

Follow Napa Patch on Twitter | Like Napa Patch on Facebook | Sign up for the daily email with links to the latest news.

Napa Patch blogger and community organizer Julio Soriano recently posted about how a group of Napa students and teachers washed cars, sold tamales and did other work to raise money for an activism trip to Tucson, where the state of Arizona is requiring the school district to suspend its Mexican-American ethnic studies program.

In "," Soriano—who also is a member of Napa Valley Ethnic Studies Advocates, although he did not travel with the group—writes,

Tucson has a nationally renowned and nationally recognized Ethnic Studies program that has helped student success grow and narrowed the educational achievement gap. Why has the school board and the state decided to ban Ethnic Studies?

Members of the Tucson School Board and the Arizona government say that Ethnic Studies teaches subversion, victimization and anti-American values.

But what if Ethnic Studies helped develop the student’s social maturity, self-confidence and self-awareness needed to effectively engage with our diverse immediate & global communities? NVESA believes in the latter. Ethnic Studies teaches (how) to live in a diverse community by recognizing the culture and history of people and thus work towards a more truthful and inclusive history of our country. 

Our Napa Patch question of the week is: What's your opinion on ethnic studies courses in public schools? Take our poll and tell us in the comments.

Do you subscribe to the Napa Patch newsletter? It brings our latest stories, blogs, announcements and the day's calendar events to your in-box early each morning. If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so by clicking here.

For instant alerts, sign up for our Breaking News Alerts emails and like our Facebook page.