Posted Jan 23, 2012, 11:27 am
Tucson Unified School District Governing Board President emailed the following letter on Sunday.—ed.
Dear friends and correspondents,
Because of the recent media attention on TUSD's "book ban," it seems useful to clarify that situation. TUSD also issued a press release on this subject several days ago, which is posted on the district website.
Every district in the state approves curriculum according to a process guided by statute and local policy, and approving the books to be used is part of that process. Through such processes a typical district might approve several hundred books for use in instruction. This leaves millions of books not approved for instruction; it would be silly to say that all of those books are "banned."
When the TUSD board voted (4-1) to end the Mexican-American Studies (MAS) curriculum, ending use of the books had to be part of that package. Staff says that the seven titles removed from classrooms and placed into storage are still available in school libraries, and I expect many of the books in storage to be distributed to libraries where they are not already available.
Because MAS did not actually have a board-approved curriculum, it was not immediately obvious which books to remove, but the staff took guidance from the evidence presented during the hearing on TUSD's appeal of Huppenthal's finding against the district. Because one motivation for the board's vote to end the MAS classes was to forestall the substantial financial penalty which the ADE threatened to impose, it made sense to remove the books which helped to provide the basis for that finding.
The seven removed books are:
- "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos" - Rodolfo Acuña
- "Rethinking Columbus: The next 500 Years" - Bill Bigelow
- "Critical Race Theory" - Richard Delgado
- "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" - Paulo Freire
- "Message to AZTLAN" - Rodolfo Gonzales
- "500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures" - Elizabeth Martinez (ed.)
- "Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement" - Arturo Rosales
I am not aware of any other school district in Arizona which has approved these books for use in instruction. If anyone knows of such approvals, then I would be interested to hear about them.
Shakespeare's The Tempest is not on this list and never was, despite some media accounts to the contrary. Instructors are free to use it.
In the resolution which ended the MAS program, the TUSD board also said:
"The district shall revise its social studies core curriculum to increase its coverage of Mexican-American history and culture, including a balanced presentation of diverse viewpoints on controversial issues. The end result shall be a single common social studies core sequence through which all high school students are exposed to diverse viewpoints."
When staff brings this new curriculum to the board, it may or may not recommend that some of the seven books be approved for use in that new curriculum. I do not expect this to happen any time soon, however. Developing the new curriculum will be a long process, which will include community input. Obviously, this time, we want to get it right.
Thank you for your continued interest in TUSD. The MAS issue has been a long-running distraction for the district, far out of proportion to the small number of students in the MAS courses (currently fewer than 300). Bringing that issue to closure will increase our capacity to focus on the many large reforms necessary to improve education in TUSD, for all students.
Mark
2 comments on this story
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This may be my best internet comment ever. I’d like to conclude it with my favorite quote ever uttered by a president, Teddy Roosevelt. I feel this sums up how I feel and further serves to drive my point home…
Those President Roosevelt uttered this almost a century ago, there are far too many who have yet to understand what he was trying to say…and that’s a crying shame.
I thank Mark Stegeman for this correspondence, and I thank Dylan Smith and other editors of the Sentinel for publishing the piece. Unfortunately, it will fall on figurative deaf ears. Those who need to understand what Mark was saying don’t want to hear it…they have their spin and their distortions and their agendas that they’re sticking to, and they don’t want to hear anything that contradicts that…no matter how factual it may be or what evidence is presented.
I’m glad attention has been called to these books. The reconquistator spin has been that these classes are not indoctrination and they’re harmless and just studying Hispanic heritage, blah blah blah…
Before I continue, allow me to post the context of the law that the MAS courses violate…
Now, while one can’t judge a book by it’s cover, I believe one can get the gist of the contents by the title of the book. Let’s look them over, shall we?
“Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” - Rodolfo Acuña
Occupied, huh? This is sovereign United States territory. There is no occupation going on. Implying otherwise wouldn’t be suggesting an overthrow of the United States government, would it?
“Rethinking Columbus: The next 500 Years” - Bill Bigelow
Meh, maybe I’ll read it sometime.
“Critical Race Theory” - Richard Delgado
Race, huh? This wouldn’t be advocating ethnic solidarity, would it?
“Pedagogy of the Oppressed” - Paulo Freire
OK, so this teaches victimization, and then inevitable resentment toward the alleged “victimizers”. White folks, perhaps?
“Message to AZTLAN” - Rodolfo Gonzales
Aztlan. Isn’t that what the reconquistators call this area? Hmmmm…..
“500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures” - Elizabeth Martinez (ed.)
Photos? OK, I don’t see a problem with that.
“Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement” - Arturo Rosales
Mexican Civil Rights…here we go again with the ethnic solidarity and promoting resentment towards a race or class of people
So, what we have here based on the titles of these books that the MAS program was based upon, five of them flew in the face of a fundamentally sound law. I passionately feel that if someone wants their kids learning to hate another group of people they should be doing it without tax dollars. I don’t want my money used to teach a bunch of retarded kids to hate me.
There’s something I’m desperate for these MAS supporters to understand…
-every single person alive during the Mexican-American war is now dead
-every single person alive during the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago is now dead
-every single person alive when Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state is now either dead, or at such an advance age at this point to where they would pose no threat to anyone
So, if this hate and resentment still exist (which obviously it does), then it has become multigenerational, taught from one generation to the next…no different then KKK members teaching their kids to hate black folks.
If the death of all those involved in the process of this region becoming sovereign United States territory isn’t enough to stop the resentment, then where could it possible ever end, and when?
And, let’s say for a minute that the reconquistators one day achieve their goal of “reconquering” “Aztlan”, then what? Will we have the descendents of former Americans saying that the area is occupied and the Mexican nationals are the oppressors?
There has to be a point somewhere where we ALL just accept the things the way they are and move on with our lives and stop teaching our children to hate based on the way things used to be generations ago.
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