| El Alma de la Raza: Back on the radar screen |
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This is a modified version of a presentation made to the Denver Public School Board on Thursday, February 18th 2010.
Education activists believe the time has arrived to take El Alma de la Raza to the next level. This specialized and culturally competent curriculum was envisioned in 1995 and has yet to be utilized to its fullest potential. This curriculum which had seemingly been archived gathering dust in the basement of a building located on 7th and Federal Avenue has been dusted off and brought back to life.
In a cursory review of Colorado School Laws written in 2006, specifically Public Law 22-1-104 entitled, “Teaching of history, culture, and civil government,” the law explicitly states, “The history and civil government of the state of Colorado shall be taught in all the public schools of this state.”
In provision 2 of this statue, it further states, “In addition, the history and civil government of the United States, which includes the history, culture, and contributions of minorities, including but not limited to, the American Indians, the Hispanic Americans, and the African Americans shall be taught in all the public schools in the state.” Provision 4 reads, “In an effort to increase civic participation among young people, each school district board of education shall convene a community forum on a periodic basis, but not less than every ten years, for all interested persons to discuss adopted content standards in civics, including the subjects described in subsection (2) of this section.”
In a cursory review of historical documents that were compiled by the Latino Education Coalition (LEC) when El Alma de la Raza curriculum was initiated in 1994, I discovered a decade-old editorial written by The Denver Post dated, March 14th 2000. The article stated that, “The Alma Project is an exciting new addition to Denver Public Schools, in which Latino history and culture will be intertwined with the regular school curriculum.” The Denver Post further stated, “There was a time, not very long ago, when children were punished, some physically abused, for simply speaking Spanish in school. But Latinos and their contributions can no longer be denied. Of the 70,000 students in DPS, 51 percent are Hispanic. Unfortunately, the four-year cumulative dropout rate among Latinos in DPS is nearly 50 percent, meaning about half of the students who enter high school do not graduate in four years. The Alma Project is a positive step in addressing that confusion by increasing pride in Latino culture and history. Children with positive images of themselves are more likely to stay in school.”
Let me emphatically state that this specialized curriculum adds educational value for students of all color and cultures at a time when this country’s demographics are changing. El Alma de la Raza is not just for Latinas/os, it is for everyone; with outcomes of creating culturally competent global citizens in a changing world.
This group would like to publically thank those many social justice activists from a variety of communities that struggled against violent historical forces so that all students could be treated equally. However, there is another kind of violence that occurs, a silent violence, a time when voices are squelched and lips are sealed. This nullification process can take different forms, one of which is to exclude those historical voices, burying their contributions to society in the quagmire of mono-cultural education.
What deeply concerns educational activists are that ten years later the push out rate in Denver Public Schools remains abysmal. Ironically, this phenomenon is occurring at a time when the social demographics for Latinos are growing exponentially including a district comprised of a 54% Latina/o population, at a time when the district continues to struggle with how to best teach children who speak languages other than English, and when there is an increase in biracial marriages producing children that are multiracial and multicultural.
The lackadaisical attitude towards El Alma has caused voices of discontent to emerge; but we come with a renewed passion. It is our belief that El Alma de la Raza inherently possesses a rational approach to addressing many of the critical issues faced by students in the district.
We are in a new world, a world where global citizenship is on the forefront. Global citizenship is defined “as a moral and ethical disposition which can guide the understanding of individuals or groups of local and global contexts, and remind them of their relative responsibilities within various communities. We believe that global citizenship begins at home where values of respect and appreciation for differences and other’s views of the world are coalesced towards a better humanity. For it is at home that we learn the values inherent in the concept of cultural competency; values like self-respect and respect for others, honoring all cultures.
Our request is for the district to convene a group designed specifically to take El Alma de la Raza to its next level. There are several community strategies that are coalescing that can come together to realize this goal. The Chicana/o Studies Department at Metropolitan State College of Denver has created an innovative class entitled, “El Alma de la Raza,” that will become part of the curriculum of the “Grow Your Own,” Program which is currently in collaboration with Denver Public Schools. This equally innovative program will produce 25 teachers with degrees in Chicana/o Studies, Minors in English as a Second Language, and licensures in Elementary Education. This community group would like to insure that 1) program evaluation become a centerpiece for El Alma de la Raza; 2) the utilization rates of El Alma de la Raza be tracked on an ongoing basis; 3) community based strategies in promoting and advertising this curriculum be initiated and implemented; and 4) new units be developed that are contemporary and meet state standards, with an outcome of improving CSAP scores and/or any other criteria used to evaluate student success.
Keep El Alma de la Raza on the radar screen!
Dr. Ramon Del Castillo
Independent Journalist
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