The Texas State Board of Education voted last month to approve a modified rule that will advance the development of public school course offerings in Mexican-American Studies. This is a mistake. We already have far too much curriculum content focused on cultural “studies” in our higher education institutions. In fact, based on a 2012 study by the National Association of Scholars, approximately 78% of the emphasis in American history courses at The University of Texas at Austin, in terms of assigned readings, is concentrated on race, class, and gender; at Texas A&M, this emphasis is 50%. We don’t need more emphasis on these multicultural “studies”, we need less, and we don’t need to introduce this concept in our secondary education curriculum. What we do need is a heightened focus on Western Civilization, the founding of the American Republic, and the contribution to it made by all cultures and all Americans, without hyphenation and without cultural relativism.
And a thunderous AMEN!!!!
The Melting Pot will soon become the curdling pot if we continue to emphasize factional interests over the human experience.
Jose Angel Gutierrez, political science professor & director/founder of the Mexican-American Studies Center is UT Arlington. The same Jose Gutierrez whose famous quotes include “We have got to eliminate the gringo and what I mean by that is, if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him.” and “One Mexico, on nation… This whole region will become the new Meso-America once again.” Make no mistake, these “cultural studies” are intended to separate America. Gutierrez is only one of several La Raza trained activists who promote separation from American culture (“the Mexican newcomers today are keeping their Mexicanness”; recreating Mexico here”, which has carried over to all hispanic immigrants). The blacks have Sharpton, Jackson and the Black Panthers to remind “their people” that “we don’t follow white man’s laws” (Shabaz, head of the New Black Panthers). The Muslims have their leaders exhorting them to keep them Muslim-ness, including Sharia Law. Meanwhile, we Americans who are so generous and will gladly share the American dream, haven’t figured out that these groups are at war with us.