Week 2

Do Won Lee

Section 2

Kaozong Mouavangsou and Linda Trinh Võ both write about the lack of education about Asians in the United States education system, Mouavangsou writes of the lack of information given to students about Asia, Asians, and Asian-Americans. Whereas Võ writes of the lack of Asian faculty and the difficulties of maintaining curricula of Asian-Americans. Mouavangsou writes how some Asians may never even be mentioned in the U.S. education system, despite their actions being taught in U.S. curriculum. For example, the Hmong people and their participation in the Vietnam War, in which only the war within Vietnam is taught in U.S. history. However, despite their actions in the Vietnam War, many students may pass the class without ever hearing a word about the Hmong people. Ethnicities and cultures are not limited to the number of countries that are considered a part of Asia. In every country, there are countless ethnicities and cultures, and some cultures and ethnicities span across several countries, like the Hmong. Another problem seen in the U.S. education system is the lack of classes that revolve around the education of Asia-Americans and the lack of Asian faculty members. Despite the rising number of Asian-Americans in the United States, the ratio of Asians in the student body and Asians in the faculty body are not increasing equivalently. Because of these many factors, there is a high chance of miseducation in the U.S. curricula and there evidently is, given the fact that there is a lack of information taught about the Hmong. Imagine how many other cultures are left brushed aside.

A personal experience was the surprising lack of Asia and Asian related classes offered at my high school. My high school is located in the bay area so there is a large number of Asians at my high school, we were the second largest race, behind Caucasians. The most to a foreign class we could take was AP European history, nothing about Asian history. Also, there were a lack of Asian language classes offered at my high school, there was only Japanese. I found that odd because other high schools that my friends attended offered Mandarin and Korea, I was slightly envious of them. But that was because there weren’t enough Asian teachers that were able to teach these sorts of classes at my high school. No one that could teach Asian history nor an Asian language. But I guess that’s how it is for now.

Question: Have you or anyone else you know been through a similar situation as Kaozong where your culture or ethnicity was entirely brushed aside from what you learned in school despite the fact that your people played a role in what you were learning about?

Sources:

Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). The Mis-Education of the Hmong in America (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Davis).

Nguyen, T. (n/a). Asians in America: Insight into facts and figures. Retrieved from  http://www.tednguyenusa.com/asians-in-america-insights-into-facts-and-figures/

Vo, L. T. (2012). Transformative Disjunctures in the Academy: Asian American Studies as Praxis. In Stockdill, B., & Danico, M. (Eds.), Transforming the Ivory Tower: Challenging Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia in the Academy (pp. 120-144). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.