Week 2

Week 2

A02

Priscilla Lee

            In Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans, Kaozong Mouavangsou describes how the American education system made the gap of culture and her identity further from each other. The misinterpretation and miseducation of the Hmong community led to the belief that the Hmong culture is not of any importance. They are underrepresented or not even mentioned in history books.

Growing up in America and having been learning from the American education system, I never really realized that what we are learning are from just one perspective, the Americas. With only one side of the story, how can we actually say we are learning the full story of what really happened? In the reading, the stress on education and the importance of language really stuck with me. As an Asian American, I know the struggle of keeping our culture’s language and traditions and trying to balance it out with the American culture. At times I feel like I am losing my culture slightly by speaking broken Cantonese or just barely being able to read it. Other times, I feel like an outsider to the American culture as well. Being born in America, I am known as American born Chinese. This is part of my identity. However, learning to balance the two cultures is something I will always be doing, but should not be an obstacle for me to learn more about where my family is from and the history behind it.

Question: Who gets to choose what cultures are being taught in the US education system? Who’s to say that our culture should vaguely to barely be taught?

References:

1.    Mouavangsou, K. (2017). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans.

2.    Million, S. (2014). Identity Crisis [digital image]. Retrieved from http://culturalconundrums.theblogpress.com/files/2014/03/identity_crisis_by_sebreg-d4952z5_large.jpg