Sleeter/ Precious Knowledge

   

 After reading "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies A Research Review" By Christine Sleeter, I choose three quotes that stood out to me. 

Quote #1: "Whites continue to receive the most attention and appear in the widest variety of roles, dominating story lines and lists of accomplishments"(Sleeter, 2). 

    I chose this quote because I recall from my own expereince in school that my classes didn't really teach about other ethnicities and the focus was primarily on the history of white people. For example, I remember only taking one history class that focoused on world history and instead of learning about all of the great things other countries accomplished, we learned mostly about the bad things that happened. I also notice this being the case in the film industry, characters in films often have steriotypical roles such as the white character being the lead and the good guy while the African American character tends to be seen as the criminal or bad guy.

Quote #2: When textbook authors bury the history of American racism within a larger narrative of inevitable American progress, students perceive race relations as a linear trajectory of improvement rather than a messy and continual struggle over power that encompasses both progress and, in the case of the decades after Reconstruction, significant steps backward in terms of racial justice" (Sleeter, 3).

    I chose this quote because we are taught about the past issues of slavery and segregation but not about how those issues are still occuring in today's world. Segregation is still very real, just more disguised now like in cities and towns where white people live in the nicer suburban areas and minorities live in the poorer urban areas segregating schools by doing this. Students should be taught about the past events but in a way that highlights history repeating itself and how many things from the past our still very much around in today's world. 

Quote #3: "White adults generally do not recognize the extent to which traditional mainstream curricula marginalize perspectives of communities of color and teach students of color to distrust or not take school knowledge seriously"(Sleeter, 4).

    I chose this quote because in order to educate students on our countries history and the history of the world, the information needs to be accurate to the events that happened. Students are not being given the proper resources to be educated on these topics in school and instead have to reach out to other resources such as older family, their community, and more to find out more about their history. Why is a diverse curriculum not being implemented and why isn't more being done to fix this?