Week3_Van Nguyen_A04

Van Nguyen

Week 3

ASA2 – A04

          I disagree with the authors link of US education cause alienation of ethnicity (Hmong in this case). The author acknowledge that the American education system is designed to group students of similar educational level students in the same class, which maximize studying efficiency. However, just because some Hmong students are smarter and be placed in the upper level classes and now they are alienated by their Hmong friends, or their Hmong fam that they supposed to belong to, and this is blamed upon the US education, I think this is overthinking of the author, and they are being overreacted. This is possibly due to the fact that the Hmong community is very tight-bonded, and make the kids anxious and confuse about their identity, questioning themselves whether they are Hmong or not when they are not surround by Hmong friends. However, as the author mentioned beforehand, the parents prioritize their children’s education. If their children are smart enough, of course, they would want their children to be in the higher educational level class, rather than being in their pack but unable to fly high. As those students going to college, they live by themselves, away from the Hmong community that they were once in, having a very small amount of Hmong friends in their college, or even none, would they still feel like, now, they are alienated? I believe not. If there is any other reason to why they experience this alienation, this is more on the closed culture of Hmong Community.

         I am Vietnamese. I don’t have a lot of Vietnamese friend. I don’t speak Vietnamese often with my Viet friends, we mainly communicate in English, but I did not feel like I am an outsider, I did not feel like I am not alone, and I am still Viet even though I don’t spend much time around Viet people. Their anxiety of being an outsider, in my opinion, is created by their own community and culture. They have to be around Hmong people to feel a sense of stability, have a flock that they belong to. My ethnic, my race is my identity, unless I refuse this identity of myself, there is no way I am no longer Viet because I was, I am, and I forever will be.

       I am not defending or attacking anyone in this writing. Instead, I want to say my opinion when reading “Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans”. Yes, US Education is not perfect, but of course in a country this diverse like the US, there is no such thing as one-fit-all educational system. It’s just that we need to look at both side of the story, blaming on to the educational system is not an answer for the issues that the author claimed.

 

Houghton, V. (N/A). Sorting Students Ability Grouping. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjv3sGm3f3fAhUJr1QKHVH8CbsQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstudy.com%2Facademy%2Flesson%2Fability-grouping-and-tracking-in-schools-advantages-and-disadvantages.html&psig=AOvVaw276U0bS3e4B570KA3XwSRV&ust=1548120468955798

Mouavangsou, K.N. (2016). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans. Retrieved: Jan 18 2019.