Week 3 - Kevin Mo

Kevin Mo

Section A02

Week 3

Growing up in the Bay Area, which is mostly Chinese and Vietnamese, I never had any real close contact with Hmong people until I came to Davis. Here, being close proximity to the Hmong community of Sacramento, I began to learn about Hmong culture, mostly their food and history. My dorm roommates of my freshman year were both Hmong. "Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Misseducation of Hmong Americans" by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou made me realize the inadequacies of the California social studies in public education. Through my entire career in the public school system, I may have discussed Hmong society less than three times. It wasn’t until I got first hand accounts of Hmong people through late-night talks with my roommates that I realized how valuable their unique culture is. Their accounts of Hmong people were vastly different than the barely glossed over information in the public high school history syllabus. This in parallel to other Asian cultures as well, including my own Chinese history. My parents would tell me about life under communist rule which contrasted with American history accounts of the same period. It showed me I have much to learn about my own culture and I should be skeptical of secondary or tertiary filters of history from edited publications like textbooks and online sources. For the amount of contribution Asian people have done for the establishment of the United States, especially for California, such as the construction of railroads, our people deserve more emphasis in public education.

Question: How can public education implement more primary source materials to further improve accounts of history?

References:

1. Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong does not Mean Free: the Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 07, 2017.
2. Personas and the “Broken Telephone” [Digital Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2017, from http://www.insivia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/telephone_game.png