Week 3: Samantha Nguyen

Samantha Nguyen

ASA 02 – A02

Week 3

Kaozong Mouvangsou’s “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans,” examines how the flawed American education has affected the Hmong community. She describes how the Hmong community perceives education to be a path of success and a divide within the community, while also depicting the omission of the Hmong people in American history books. After researching the many families with different educational backgrounds, both the parents and children shared the same belief of education being a pathway to financial security. Though they may share the same powerful belief, no one mentioned the negative impacts of US education on the Hmong community. I agree that education can not only be a tool for learning, but it can also be a tool used to divide and misinform communities. From the studies that Mouvangou stated, loss of home language can have significant impacts on self-identity. I can relate to this because growing up, I only learned English. Coming from a Chinese and Vietnamese background, I don’t know much about my own heritage, especially since the history of my heritage is not printed in US history books. In US history books, there aren’t enough information to education students upon certain cultures. Even if there were to be information about a certain event, it’s biased in a way to put American culture in a positive light despite the terrible actions Americans have taken in the past. It angers me to read that Mouvangsou was taught that her people had “no written language,” and “no country of their own” even though they really did have a written language. This reading was eye-opening to shed light upon the fact that education has implications for communities of color. Many of us are blindly taught about cultures in US history books, and we can’t always believe in what we are taught.

Question: Why do most parents and even youths have the perception that Hmong male sons do not do academically as well as female students?

References:

1.     Mouavangsou, K. N. (2016). Hmong does not Mean Free: the Miseducation of Hmong Americans. Retrieved October 07, 2017.

2.      [Digital Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2017, from http://education.mnhs.org/immigration/narrators/hmong/mai-neng-moua/education-will-open-the-doors-to-many-things