California Follies

How do you spend billions on education and not see improvements in students' test scores? As we are seeing in California, by having teacher's more interested in fomenting identity politics than teaching the three R's.



Last week 4 students were sent home for wearing clothing displaying the American flag on Cinco De Mayo. Who took to the streets to protest the school's outrageous decision?

About 200 Hispanic teens are marching in Morgan Hill yelling "We want respect!" and "Si se puede!" in reaction to a controversy ignited when the Live Oak High School principal effectively sent four students home for wearing T-shirts with American flags on them during Cinco de Mayo.

Mexican-American students felt the students were being disrespectful on the only day they celebrate their heritage while students sporting red, white and blue said it violated their First Amendment rights.

Where would these students' get the idea that it is somehow "disrepectful" to wear clothing emblazoned with Old Glory in the United States of America? In their classroom.

Mr. Boden and Mr. Rodriguez preside over a high school with various clubs and organizations. As administrators, they must sanction these activities. There is the Anime Club, the Asian Student Union, the Black Student Union, the Drama Guild, the Chess Club, MEChA, the Patriot Club, and a raft of other extracurricular activities from which student can chose to participate.

Live Oak High's description of MECHA is:

MECHA stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán). Aztlán was the homeland of the Mexicas (Mexicas is the root word of Chicano), also known as the people of the earth, who wandered from Aztlán to Tenochtitlan. Aztlán is believed to be located in the southern US and northern Mexico.

The group was [originally] formed to address issues in the Chicano movement of 1969 such as the need for better school conditions (resources, facilities), to learn Mexican studies, have more Mexican teachers, and higher expectations for Mexican students versus encouraging them to go to trade schools or for young Chicanas to stay at home.

This is how MECHA describes themselves:

As Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán, we are a nationalist movement of Indigenous Gente that lay claim to the land that is ours by birthright. As a nationalist movement we seek to free our people from the exploitation of an oppressive society that occupies our land. Thus, the principle of nationalism serves to preserve the cultural traditions of La Familia de La Raza and promotes our identity as a Chicana/Chicano Gente.

Our schools' should not be used as breeding grounds to recruit and incite would be revolutionaries; they should give kids an education that allows them to have productive and succesful lives.

As a nation of immigrants we need to respect our different heritages, but never forget that we are Americans first. In this neck of the woods St. Patrick's Day is a huge deal, but no student would be sent home for wearing a shirt to display their love of country instead of something green. St. Patty's and Cinco de Mayo have much in common: they aren't big deals in the either Ireland or Mexico and they have been embraced by America at large as a day to get soused, even if it's a weekday.