Week 3 – Isabel Fajardo

Isabel Fajardo

Week O3

AO3

After this week’s reading, I find it so interesting that males in Hmong society are perceived to do as well in education as their female counterparts. In the graphs of the families shown, most of the mothers’ highest levels of education are either adult school or some college. There is no evidence of them having actually earning a degree. On the other hand, the fathers are shown to have higher degrees of education. I wonder if there is other contributors to the perception than the failure of the education system – a claim that is still valid.

In my Asian-American family, there is definitely more pressure on me to do well as opposed to my brother. I am not entirely sure if this because of the culture back in my parents’ homeland, but much more is expected of me; I must do well in school, constantly clean the house, stay in top mental and physical health. In addition, my parents’ culture tends to favor the man more. I would not be surprised if the women in the Hmong culture that are born in America feel pressured to do well in order to prove themselves to be equal with their brother(s). I also think that perhaps the men feel like they are also ahead in their culture – simply by being men – so they do not feel as encouraged to do well in school.

I do, however, agree that the education system in America is failing Asian-Americans. Like the Hmongs, I have never heard of the Philippines as something postitive. I vividly remember hearing AP U.S. History that the Philippines were islands that America did not really know what to do with – they were the “White Elephant” or liabilities. I do not even remember learning about Asian History in pre-college education; the last time I learned about Asia was in sixth grade. In addition, I was never once taught by someone of Asian descent. They were mainly white; none were explicitly POC or not white passing.

I personally thought this paper was really interesting and posed many questions that I could find myself thinking deeply about the structure of our education system representation and how it entwines with our Asian-American identities and cultures. I find it so interesting that many students come from a diverse background, yet our teachers do not reflect such.

Question: How could we reformat our educational system to represent some Asian-American voices when it is currently Western-focused? How can we encourage other people in our community to become teachers?

References:

1. Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 08, 2017.

2. Huynh, G. (n.d.). Teachers in the United States by Race, (2012) Teacher and 2008 (Student). In Number and percentage distribution of teachers in public and private elementary and secondary schools, by selected teacher characteristics (Digest of Educational Statistics). National Center for Educational Statistics.