Week 3: Kelsey Kim

Week 3 Reading Blog

Kelsey Kim

Section A03

In her article, Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans, Kaozong N. Mouvangsou illuminates how the U.S. education system miseducates Hmong about their culture and how this results in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. The article reports the author's findings in her research of Hmong-American culture and how the general education has skewed or shadowed the Hmong culture and flow of knowledge. The author shares how her personal experiences as a Hmong person and perceptions of her peoples' culture were skewed as well as those of the other families in her study. Mouvangsou explains how Hmong place a lot of weight on educational success and receiving a degree in higher education in order to ensure a better life for younger generations. Despite this, she acknowledges that her study was partially spurred when she realized that Hmong males were falling behind in school, while girls were more motivated to work hard due to inherent sexism that favored Hmong males. History taught in America is designed to support the narrative that narrative that America is great because "the educational system of a society is reflective of that society's values and beliefs", thus, it often fails to include significant members and events deemed less valuable (Mouvangsou 5). Furthermore, the lack of accurate information renders teachers unprepared to educate people of color. Although the study focuses on Hmong, it is important to educate one's self about their own cultural heritage(s) (regardless of ethnicity), rather than rely on general history courses to provide that information. In addition, not having one's own knowledge of their culture can result in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes and the loss of culture and traditional language. This is true for many other social issues. Without knowledge, society falls victim to whatever narrative those in positions of power choose to spin on us. The use of the education system to "miseducate" people of color is just one form of marginalization.

Question:

Mouvangsou address how grouping students in classes based on perceived literacy skill levels isolated several "high performing" Hmong from the general group at school. I wonder how ethical it is to group students based on skill level because this method essentially limits students' progress to a preset level, which could potentially be a factor in future success. This can be compared to the creation of the unfair and unjust educational system created over a century ago discussed by Jamie Lee in The Untold History of Modern U.S. Education: The Founding Fathers. Why not fill classes with a spectrum of abilities in order to elevate all levels of students?

References:

Mouavangsou, K. N. 2016. Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 2, 2017.

Traditional Hmong Dress[Photograph found in Seattle, Washington]. (2013, November 9). Retrieved October 7, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_Americans#/media/File:Traditional_Hmong_Dress_at_Festal_-_Seattle_Center_-_Seattle_Washington.jpg