The Academic and Social
Value of Ethnic Studies
By
Christine E. Sleeter
Reflection
In a country like the United States, where diversity is a main characteristic of the population, I find the author’s concerns to be completely appealing! I find it very normal for students to lose interest in school since they feel they don’t belong in it or that the schools only belong to a specific type of people. In this text, the author is talking about students “of color” being marginalized at schools. I strongly agree with that, and I could compare it strongly to my school experience in my original country, Syria, to talk about neglected peers in elementary school at that time, not only because they’re of a different color, but also of a different religion. With a Christian majority in my city back then, it happened to be two muslim students in my classroom who used to be looked at like aliens, laughed at them, I always used to see them sad, increasingly missing classes, with a very humble academic performance, until one day, we could see them in school no more! I think that those students could’ve been saved if there was an existing strong and supportive environment that would include them and their beliefs equally during schools where they could’ve felt welcomed! I think I can clearly notice every single aspect of students’ disingagemt the author talked about in the U.S., caused by the absence of their belonging, when a specific mainstream in education based on race and/or ethnicity is taking place and destroying the other students’s origin, culture and so their existence oppressing them as well as forcing them to feel ignored and angry toward the dominant students and curriculum. I also think that can go beyond school students’ engagement to cover other kinds of oppressions that lead to disengagement, anger, hate, and then wars! And these are, as I think, the results we are harvesting all over the world, unfortunately!
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