Jessie Benedict, A01, Week 6

In this week’s reading "Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of and by Hmong Americans" by Kaozong N. Mouavangsou, the author discusses how US education system is miseducating students about Hmong, which leads to the miseducation of the Hmong. I feel that each country would want their citizens to learn about their history, so it’s understandable that they would place an emphasis on what their people went through in the past. Hence, for someone studying in America, it’s inevitable that most texts about history would come from a Western or American perspective. However, the US education system needs to humble themselves and emphasize to students that the history that they are learning in school is only from one perspective, the Western perspective, and that there are many other perspectives and views regarding the same history of events. For example, from the US perspective, the Hmong people were military allies to US in the Vietnam war. However, other perspectives show that “not all Hmong people living in Laos were considered U.S. military allies” (Valverde & Dariotis, 203) and that those opposing US “believed that they were fighting against U.S. imperial-ism and for the independence of Laos” (203). In addition, they have to admit that their view on other cultures and groups may not be correct or accurate, and encourage students to find out more about these through other resources. This way, instead of believing and accepting everything that they are taught, students would take everything they learn with a grain of salt, and are encouraged to find out more about the cultures from different perspectives. The Hmong people can turn to their older family members or other resources to learn more about their history and culture instead of solely relying on the US education to do so, which could prevent the miseducation of the Hmong and strengthen their understanding and identity as Hmong. Ultimately, it’s always best to learn about the history and culture of a group from someone who has experienced or has been immersed in it.

Question: What resources can the US education system provide to support the preservation of different cultures?

References:
Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Image: Apaez, S. (2019, December 9). IN PICTURES: It's New Year's, Hmong-style at El Dorado Park • Long Beach Post News. Retrieved from https://lbpost.com/news/arts-culture/in-pictures-hmong-new-year-festival