By: David Conde
In my senior year of college, the voices of Latino discontent with injustice in America reached a watershed moment. The community was awakening to its status as a forgotten and ignored minority.
That year also saw the publication of a collection of essays entitled La Raza: Forgotten Americans (1966), edited by Julian Samora of Notre Dame University and The Invisible Minority (1966), a National Education Association report reflecting the dysfunctional condition of Latino education. These were later followed by 6 Office of Civil Rights reports that documented lower teacher expectations for Latino students than for other children.
The historical moment that began to open the eyes of the country to the educational plight of young Chicanos combined with my personal experience as a second class citizen, led to a search for improvement that produced a commitment and dedication to change. That way of thinking continues as way face the challenge of a K-12 system that is not working for everyone.
Graduate school for me was also a laboratory of experimentation with new approaches to the study of the human experience found in literature and in my own life. Thus, I became a critic that analyzed the journey in literature and more importantly, in my own search for identity and place as an American.
The result is that my career in higher education and beyond has also coincided with a constant search for ways for our community and our country to better serve our children and the future they represent. That has included school physical innovations like open classrooms, methodologies like modular instruction, the use of strategic planning platforms like those in competency-base and performance-based education and language and cultural objective found in bilingual and dual language instruction.
It is well documented that the great push for the development of excellence in K-12 schooling and beyond has run its course. Former Denver Mayor Federico Pena who imagined a great city and made it so, in an April 12, 2022 commentary in the Denver Post said as much as he points out that “the Denver Board of Education has no plans to recover learning for our students, who are struggling with the most fundamental components of education.”
America’s K-12 system is in trouble to the point that alternatives such as charter schools have increasingly
become a better option for children and their families. “The success of charter schools boils down to the notion that they obey the intent of a group of parents and community leaders who come together to make decisions about the future of their children and about how that future should be best
approached.”
This perspective has been the secret to the long success of Head Start programs throughout the country. Although favoring a variety of academic interests and specialties, charter school systems look to express the same intent in their governance.
Latinos committed to helping to create educational opportunities for their children are particularly interested in systems like charter schools designed to address specific needs. Latino immigrant parents are specifically devoted to the charter school movement because of the unique needs on the part of their children for a dual language environment especially in the early years.
Also, high school students from immigrant families favor the flexibility charter schools offer in day and night scheduling because they tend to also work to support their families. Their success despite these obstacles represents another step in the building of a new America.
Latinos have come a long way from 1966. Yet, the journey continues.
