Brian Dang
Section A01
Week 3

                “The Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans” by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou presents an interesting perspective on the education of Hmong. It focuses on how the U.S. education splits up the Hmong community. I find the perspective that the U.S. education system focusses so little on minorities that students within a minority start to lose their culture. This is a comparable situation to what I’m in. Although I am raised in a Vietnamese household I can barely even speak Vietnamese. I go to a lot of different Vietnamese cultural events and am a part of the Vietnamese community but I can barely communicate with anyone since I don’t know Vietnamese. It makes it so I can’t learn more about my culture. The statement about U.S. schools not teaching about the Hmong seems true to me as well because even though Vietnam is closely related to the Hmong, I barely knew that the Hmong people existed. I don’t completely agree that the education system is what is dividing the female and the male Hmong academically though. It seems more to me that the Hmong culture doesn’t push males to excel academically enough than the school system pushing them away. Also, the article seemed to focus on Hmong males who did focus on academics. I would’ve liked a perspective from a Hmong male who didn’t take academics as seriously. 

Question

How can the Hmong youth keep their culture while also excelling academically?

Reference:
Swanson, D. (n.d.). [Digital image]. Retrieved October 8, 2017, from http://www.wisconsincentral.net/People/People/HmongIntro_files/hmongcovera.jpg

Mouavangsou, K. N. 2016. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 8, 2017.