Week 3_Ken Lau_A03

In the article, Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans, the author makes a point that many Asian American students have been miseducated about their own cultural history. Many of the studies done on Asian Americans, especially Hmong Americans, focus on lack of resources or parental factors to explain challenges they experience in academia rather than how the education system itself negatively impact students. A point that stood out to me was when the author mentions how books that describe Hmong culture and medicine with an outsider's perspective portrays the culture as primitive and foreign. They do not try to understand why the people do the things they do, but instead perceives it as strange and useless. This connects well to the idea of miseducation because the US educational system does not fully and accurately portray other cultures, which may lead to identity problems among students of color. The US educational system devalues other communities' history and cultures while trying to maintain the greatness of its own. I really like the author's call for educators, parents, and students to be more aware of what they teaching or being taught about their culture and history.
Question: How can one be more aware of the miseducation of one's history?




References:

• Mouavangsou, K.N. (2016). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans
• "self-identity selflessness-min" [Online Image]. Retrieved January 20, 2019 from http://skepticmeditations.com/2016/01/17/selfless-realization-from-meditation/self-identity-selflessness-min/