Aaron Seitz
Section A03
Week
2-Monday April 10th
Response to
“Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans.” By Kaozong
Mouavangsou
The reading for this week
specifically connected with this week’s theme of miseducation by explaining different
ways in which Hmong Americans are poorly educated. The reading first explains
that many Hmong youth are taught that depending on their gender, they may or
may not be expected to succeed in school and thus should not even try or should
work very hard. This can put a lot of pressure on these young children. Later
the reading goes on to explain how most if not all public schools do a poor job
of explaining true Hmong culture. Most public schools generalize Hmong history
and in turn Hmong youth find little to be proud of about their ancestry. The
reading for this week opened my eyes to some major problems the youth of this
generation face. First and foremost are pressures put on youth by their parents
to excel in school or provide for their families. The reading explained how
Hmong parents often expected their sons to become successful and provide for
their future families even though sons were often seen as less capable in
academics. Daughters on the other hand turned to education to escape the
cultural norm expressed by their parents that sons were the primary family
supporters. I believe this reveals a much bigger problem that almost all youth
face which is these high expectations from their parents to succeed in one form
or another which very well might differ from the way the child wants to succeed
or views success. The other major problem brought up that youth today face is
the failing public education system. Social studies courses in particular seem
to struggle with providing a complete and unbiased education. Nearly all the
information taught in those courses is from the perspective of white Americans who
lack a broader perspective of the entire world. This hurts many people such as
Hmong Americans especially but more generally all American youth because they
do not get the full historic picture and in turn miss out on a huge part of
history. More so, students are in turn not compelled to think critically and
seek out the total truth as explained in the reading.
This image
shows that among Asian American sub-groups, Hmong Americans have one of the
lowest percentages of people who obtain a bachelor’s degree and the highest
percentage of people with less than a high school diploma for their education.
References:
[Educational Attainment for Asian American Sub-Groups]. (2013, June 14).
Retrieved April 9, 2017, from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2013/06/hmong-indian-whats-the-difference/
Mouavangsou,
K. N. (2016). The Mis-Education of the Hmong in America (Doctoral dissertation,
University of California, Davis).
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