Week 3 - Billy Chen

Billy Chen

Section A02

Week 3

In Kaozong Mouvangsou’s “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans,” the idea of American education being a negative impact to one's culture is discussed and examined. Growing up, we are taught that education in America is one's most valuable asset. Instead, Mouvangsou explains that it may have hurt more than it may have helped her. Reading her masters’ thesis, I thought about my own experience as a first generation Asian-American student in the US education system. In all of my years of academia, I recall that I have learned little to nothing about the many Asian cultures and people, specifically Hmong people, that flood universities today.

I agree with Mouvangsou’s statement about how the “US educational  system is not prepared to teach students of color, and has been particularly egregious in its miseducation of people of ethnic groups that have migrated to the US most recently.”

The US education system teaches us that people of different cultures and races from all over the world should follow American ideals and etiquettes and forget about our own cultures. Even though many educational systems in the US have tried to adapt to all of those cultures, it will never understand importance of preserving and teaching students to accept themselves for who they are.

Question: Since the United States is getting more and more diverse and culturally aware, why hasn't the education system caught on to its little to no teaching about the many cultures and different ethnicities that built this country?

References:

1. Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong does not Mean Free: the Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 07, 2017.
2. https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/wp-content/uploads/files/2013/September/293877_10152302115250347_1373341257_n.jpg