Tag: ethnicstudies

Building Back More Inequality: No Free Community College While Enrollment Dips In The Pandemic

~ Irene Sanchez ~ Leave a comment

By Irene Sanchez This is hardly a surprise, but the pandemic has impacted many students at all levels of education, particularly those who are underserved and over represented in a system like the community college. It’s no surprise that as a result community college enrollment has dropped in a global pandemic. Then there was a … Continue reading Building Back More Inequality: No Free Community College While Enrollment Dips In The Pandemic

Schools: No More Dehumanizing and Disrespecting Our Kids and Communities

~ Irene Sanchez ~ Leave a comment

By Irene Sanchez No one wants to talk about it, but in order to work towards the inclusion and equity and all these nice things, all these “nice folks” in charge making decisions in education claim to want for marginalized students, we must do no harm. More than doing no harm though, one must truly … Continue reading Schools: No More Dehumanizing and Disrespecting Our Kids and Communities

Through My Father’s Tears: Remembering the Chicano Moratorium and My First Lessons in Chicano History

~ Irene Sanchez ~ Leave a comment

When my father told me about the events on August 29th, 1970, it was one of the few times I have seen my father cry. I was in middle school when he began to tell stories about growing up in East LA. I know it had something to do with the release of the PBS … Continue reading Through My Father’s Tears: Remembering the Chicano Moratorium and My First Lessons in Chicano History

The Real American Dirt: How Targeting Mexicans Led to Banned Chicano/Latino Books and Classes

~ Irene Sanchez

By Irene Sanchez Xicana Ph.D. The most recent discussion on NPR surrounding the novel American Dirt featuring Myriam Gurba- the Chicana author who was the first to critique the book, author Luis Alberto Urrea, author Sandra Cisneros and author of American Dirt-Jeanine Cummins, has reminded me about the injustices that Chicano/Latino communities still face in … Continue reading The Real American Dirt: How Targeting Mexicans Led to Banned Chicano/Latino Books and Classes

Why High School Graduation Remains an Important Achievement for Chicanos/Latinos

~ Irene Sanchez ~ 1 Comment

The same year my son began kindergarten was the same year I started teaching high school. After completing a Ph.D. in Education in 2015, instead of working in higher education as I anticipated, I was called to teach Ethnic Studies in high school classrooms to be in schools that sometimes feel like the “Mexican Schools” I teach about from the 1940s. As Teaching Tolerance has documented in these Mexican Schools, “Many Anglo educators did not expect, or encourage, Chicano students to advance beyond the eighth grade. Instead, the curriculum at the Mexican schools was designed, as one district superintendent put it, “to help these children take their place in society.”