Migrant Ed And The Holocaust
Teresa, a high-school student who assists me in my
Adult English as a second language classes, recently spent
a week in Washington D.C.
Along with a
group of other Migrant Education students from the
San Joaquin Valley, Teresa traveled east to meet with
some of the capital`s high and mighty. (The
Federally-funded Migrant Education program was
established 35 years ago during Lyndon Johnson`s Great
Society reforms to
assist the children of farm workers with their special
learning needs.)
Teresa isn`t really sure how she qualified for the
Migrant Ed boondoggle. Her parents may have been field
workers at one time. But Teresa isn`t sure. She`s never
heard them speak of it.
In any case, even if Teresa`s parents were migrant
workers, those issues don`t resonate with her.
These are heady times for Teresa. The night before
she took off for Washington, Teresa went to her Senior
Prom. And Teresa has just been accepted to the
University of the Pacific, a respected private
college in Stockton, CA. She`s been flipping through the
pages of Auto Trader hoping to find an affordable
convertible to get around campus.
But Teresa, who had never been out of California, is
smart enough to know a good deal when she sees one. If
someone wants to put an all-expenses paid trip to
Washington D.C. in her hand and give her a week off from
Tokay High, then she`s game.
For the most part, the “Experience in Democracy”
agenda was predictable. Senators Dianne Feinstein,
Senator Barbara Boxer, Representative Richard Pombo and
Representative Hilda Solis were visited.
The students also called on Alicia O. Fernandez-Mott,
Chief
of Farmworker Programs in the Department of Labor,
Francisco Garcia,
Director of Migrant Education and Lou Gallegos,
Assistant Secretary for Administration at the
Department of Agriculture.
Lisa Diaz and Patricia Campos hosted workshops on
“Team Building” and “Power in the Political Arena.”
The AFL-CIO sponsored the “The Young Worker`s Forum” and “Power in
the Political Arena” presented by the
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and
chaired by Ana Polanco.
Of course, I have problems—to varying degrees–with
all of this.
First, Migrant Education has long since outlived its
usefulness. Today, the program is a bottomless
bureaucratic money pit that no one dares touch lest he
be targeted as insensitive to migrant workers and their
children.
The reality is that migrant students can walk into
any K-12 campus in the country and receive a full
panorama of educational and social services.
Second, pulling kids out of school late in the
semester is a poor idea. If you have spent any time
around California`s high-school students, you`d know how
badly they need to be in school, working harder and
learning more.
Third, the kids—especially those who live in the
migrant camps—want to learn about opportunities outside
of agriculture. I haven`t heard too many say they want
to follow in their parent`s footsteps. So meetings with
Latino big shots in the federal government and attending
seminars about Latino political clout is not where
they`re at.
And I noticed a singular lack of diversity in the
agenda. With as much ballyhoo as
diversity gets on high-school campuses, you would
think a call on an Asian or African-America bureaucrat
would have been appropriate.
Fourth – my biggest problem – was with how the
organizers allocated sightseeing time. During the week,
the kids had a total of two hours for a guided tour of
DC sites. During that time, a bus whizzed them past
the
Smithsonian Museums, the
Lincoln Memorial, the
Washington Monument and the
Vietnam Wall.
But later in the week, the kids spent three hours at
the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The evening
prior, in preparation, they watched an hour-long
introductory Holocaust Museum video followed by a group
discussion.
Two hours total for all of DC`s dozens of sites but
three hours-plus for the Holocaust Museum?
Remember that these young students know
next to nothing
about American history or civics.
Naturally, the kids should be exposed to the
atrocities of Nazi Germany. Of course, time spent at
the museum isn`t wasted.
But the extended tour of the Holocaust Museum
indirectly sends a grim message, perhaps purposely, to
the kids.
That message is:
“Do you see what happens
when people hate? You, as a Mexican-American, may be a
victim of hate. There are people out there who don`t
like you and want you to go away. Can you see where hate
leads?”
This is just my analysis. But the themes that are
hammered home over and over again in high school deal
with the wonders of diversity and the
shamefulness of racism. The Holocaust Museum visit
reinforces the idea in young pliable minds that racism,
taken to its extreme, leads to death.
Had I organized the week, I would have loaded the
kids up onto a bus, driven along cherry blossom lined
Potomac and headed for
Mt. Vernon.
When you know very little about America,
as is the case with the “Experience in Democracy”
crowd, George Washington is the place to begin.
To ignore him (and us) is an insult.
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English at the Lodi
Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column
since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.


