Redirecting Educators Toward the 3 R's

For English Language Learners

 

Thanks to Susan Smith of the Nebraska Advisory Group (nagsusansmith@yahoo.com), a strong opponent of illegal immigration, for supplying the disturbing agenda of an education conference coming up this weekend in Los Angeles. It's listed below.

 

If we see this caliber of propaganda creeping in to teacher inservices and so forth in Nebraska, we need to nip it in the bud. Whoa!

 

No wonder there's such an achievement gap between Hispanic students and Caucasians. There's not a single practical, explicit skill being taught in this conference agenda to instruct teachers how to help Hispanic kids do better in school.

 

It might be worth it to forward this story to members of your local school board or ESU board to make it clear that any taxpayer-provided continuing education program for teachers in Nebraska must focus specifically on academic topics.

 

Our educational organizations frequently hire consultants and provide inservices at taxpayer expense but offer little or no taxpayer input as to the content. So let's make sure they concentrate on making English Language Learners better at reading, writing, arithmetic and the other school subjects, and NOT cause school staff to get propagandized by despicable content such as this.

 

You can also email the San Diego-based sponsoring organization of this conference and communicate your outrage: info@associationofrazaeducators.org

 

Here's the conference agenda:

Association of Raza Educators
Education Conference
"Rethinking Social Justice in Education:
Ser Pueblo, Hacer Pueblo, y Estar Con El Pueblo"

Saturday, February 28, 2009
Santee Education Complex
1921 S. Maple Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90011(FREE PARKING!!!)

Keynote Speakers:

Omali Yeshitela, Chairman, African People's Socialist Party and Former Black PantherDonaldo Macedo, Professor, Univ. of Massachusetts, Co-author of Critical Literacy w/Paulo Freire

Sakeenah Shabazz, President, African Revolutionary Student Organization, Lincoln High School Student

Partial List of Workshops:

PANEL - Surviving the Neo-Colonial School District:
Black Listed Teachers Speak Out!
Amitis Motevalli, Former teacher at Locke H.S. Black listed for refusing police searches and organizing students
Karen Salazar, Former Jordan HS Teacher Black listed for teaching Malcolm X and student organizing
Marisol A lba, Celerity Charter Elm, Black listed for teaching a poem about Emmitt Till

Rethinking the "Line Between Us":
Bringing History Alive in the Classroom
Bill Bigelow, Rethinking Schools magazine

The Politics of Education and Community Empowerment:
How To Struggle, How To Win
Aremi Lopez & Maria Ochoa
Association of Raza Educators, San Diego Chapter

Teaching through Lies:
Critical Ideological Literacy and Corporate Rap
Patrick Camangian, University of San Francisco

Raising Political Consciousness through Education:
Effectively starting & sustaining an ARE Chapter
Juan Orozco, ARE Statewide Council
Mariana Ramierz, ARE Statewide Council
Miguel Zavala, ARE Statewide Council

A Barrio Pedagogy: Identity, Intellectualism, Activism, and
Academic Achievement through the Evolution of Critically
Compassionate Intellectualism
Sean Arce, Tucson Unified School District
Augustine Romero, Tucson Unified School District

Hacer Pueblo in Higher Education
Edelina Burciaga, University of California, Irvine
Irene Vea, University of California, Irvine
Karina Cuamea, University of California, Irvine

Infusing Curriculum with Action and Critical Thinking Skills :
Chicano/ Latino Theatre at Evergreen Valley College
Lisa Edsall - Giglio
Evergreen Valley College, San Jose, CA

Film: Voices from War
Peter Dudar, Arlington West

Culturally Responsive Teaching:
The Raza Perspective
Javier San Román, Association of Mexican American Educators

A Revolutionary Pedagogy: Going Beyond the
Classroom and into Our Communities in Search of True
Liberation
Sakeenah Shabazz, A.R.S.O. African Revolutionary Student Organization
Jona than Flores, M.E.Ch.A_Lincoln High School

PANEL: 1948 to 2008: 60 years of Occupation,
Oppression and Ethnic cleansing in Palestine
Pouneh Behin & Suzie Abajian

Mujeres de Maiz: Harvesting Hope and Healing in Your
Community Through the Arts
Felicia Montes, Mujeres de Maiz

Mass Appeal: Creating Community Ciphers and
Fostering Youth Action in Our Classrooms
Tan Laurence, Joanna Alatorre, Elizabeth Silva, and Beverly Castillo
Watts Youth Collective

Deconstruction of the Colonized Mind Through Critical Media Literacy:
Ernesto Bustillos, Coordinator of the Raza Press and Media Association

Teatro For Your Pueblo:
Rosa Gonzales & Luís 'xago' Juárez, headRush
Association of Raza Educators, Oakland Chapter

Patricia Isasa's Fight for Social Justice:
Argentine Torture Survivor Speaks, excerpts from El Cerco
Patricia Isasa

RAZA SI PINTAS NO! EDUCATION, NOT INCARCERATION!
From the School Hall to Juvenile Hall, The Criminalization
of Raza Youth Under Colonial Education Institutions
Francisco Romero, Chicano Mexicano Prison Project

PANEL: Military-Education Industrial Complex
Marisela Guzman, Jefferson HS grad, Veteran, AFSC
Arlene Inouye, CAMS
Kiki Ochoa, ARE San Diego
Jonathan Flores, MEChA de Lincoln HS, Somos Raza, San Diego

The Struggle Within The Struggle, La Mujer
Magdalena Montrond & Jennifer Astudillo, Somos Raza Student Org. San Diego

Social Justice in Elementary Education
Carolina Valdez, Association of Raza Educator, Los Angeles Chapter

The Role of Public Education in our Society
Edin Barrientos & Danny Monterroso, Coalition for Educational Justice

A-G Electives as a Practice of Freedom:
Creating and Implementing A Chicana/o Latina/o
Studies Class and Program at your High School—An
Intimate Portrait of Raza Pedagogy in Pomona, Califas
Cati de los Rios, Pomona High School & The Eastside Café

Zapatismo: Creative Resistance and Lessons Learned
Olmeca, Artist in Rebellion from Los Angeles