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After watching the documentary “Precious Knowledge”, please post your reaction in a textbox. Reactions should include references to the Sleeter article, “Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies”.

Documentary: Click Here

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1.The documentary really opened my eyes to how students actually want to learn more about their history but often do not because they are not given the chance yet now that they have it they are having it taken away from them. This feels unfair for them.

2.The statistics are there and should be more than enough proof to warrant the superintendent thinking twice about removing a program which has had such a positive impact on student performance. The cameras have all the beautiful moments of learning captured on tape for the world to see.

3. Similar to what the article previously touched upon is the idea that student=nts love to learn but often miss out on representation of figures who look and come from places like themselves making them feel isolated and distance from the subject at hand.

4. Not only is it an offense to take away figures that mean something to these students and replace them with white “heros” but it's also heartbreaking to see the program be labeled as a type of propaganda as an anti immigrant sentiment grows in Arizona.

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The documentary helped me realized that at some point in history the education system was against us learning about our culture and history. It showed me that there had to be a fight in order for us to even have an ethnic studies class now. In my opinion this shows the bias because how is it they only want us to learn about white people history but not the history of the people that bring America all together.

I believe that Raza studies really helped the Latinx students. Just from the documentary it can be seen how the students could actually connect to what they were learning as well as they seemed more engaged. I was able to connect with this because I am the exact same way. If I can't connect or if I am not interested in the topic I am learning I won't pay as much attention or do my best in the class.

I also saw that the bias of the teacher effects the way kids learn. One of the teachers in the documentary talks about how teachers won't make connections with the students. They won't try to make class enjoyable for them. A lot of time a class that is just lecture and includes the students just sitting there won't make the students retain information or want to learn. Classes with teachers that are bias will only make the kids want to finish the work and get the class over with instead of eating to learn more and seeing how they can connect what they are learning to themselves.

In the article it also shows that the people that are against the "Raza studies" are white people. The superintended is a white man. He didn't even bother to attend the class and watch what goes on in there. He denied the invitation. This goes on to show the racism in the United States. The class isn't the problem the racism in this country is.

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1. I think the TUSD La Raza/Mexican American studies course was successful as claimed in the film because it encouraged and gave motivation to students who were apart of the Chicano/a communities to finish school. The students at first described how high school was pushing them away from their academics and how they didn't feel welcomed. After the course was implemented, students were extremely pleased with their academics and wanted more from school. It was stated in the documentary that before the ethnic studies class was implemented, the school had a graduation rate of 50% of people apart of the Latinx communities who didn't graduate. And after it was implemented, they had a graduation rate of 93% of those who were enrolled in the ethnic studies class. This definitely shows the success the class had.
2. The kind of evidence that the director uses to show how the course was successful was by providing primary sources. The director filmed how lectures went and interviewed both students who were apart of the course during this time and the teachers who taught the different topics of ethnic studies. Using these sources allowed for the viewers to see how successful the course was since you can see the improvement from the very beginning to the end, viewer’s begin to see how the ethnic studies course built a sense of community in the school and brought many students together. This is shown by including video evidence of the community day they had at the school, where students and parents of the Latinx communities gathered together to embrace and celebrate their traditions. In short, the director uses evidence to show how the course was successful by incorporating interviews of those who were there and events that had happened when ethnic studies first appeared at the school in Arizona.
3. Yes I do see similarities between the students in the documentary and the students discussed in "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies." Some of the similarities between the two are the fact that the curriculums never taught the history of other's besides the whites and how the curricula caused a disengagement from education to occur. In the documentary, the students that were interviewed mentioned how they weren't really interested in the social studies courses they were taking but when ethnic studies kicked in, it was made clear that the students enjoyed learning and made a reconnection with education. As for the students in the article, it was the same, but instead of receiving an ethnic studies course, students were surveyed to see if they wanted to learn more about their community's history. Majority of the students voted that they would like to learn more about it. The article touches on how it has caused many students apart of the people of color communities to also be disengaged with education, many were tired of seeing the same outcome occur with many different events throughout history. This also ties into how both the students of the article and the students of the documentary were never taught anything about their people's history in the curriculum, they both wanted a change to occur within the curricula, therefore, showing how the course of study never shows anything other than the history of the whites.
4. My thoughts about the discussion regarding how Benjamin Franklin was portrayed in a classroom is it really shouldn't matter if they are shown in a classroom or not, education should be about it's students and what they'd want to learn, not what the school board wants the students to learn. its very heartbreaking to see how ethnic studies was seen as a place where it turns students into "racists" and those who hate America. In truth, ethnic studies just allows them to become more educated about the history in the United States and the reason as to why they were trying to and did shut down ethnic studies in the high school is because they were scared of these communities rising into power since education is power. More power means for more change and I firmly believe that their goal was to decrease that power discretely by naming the class as something that causes students to hate America.

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1. I believe the TUSD La Raza/ Mexican American studies course was successful because the students were engaged with the material that was taught in class. Students who were failing school, and even had a small chance of graduating became motivated to change because of this class. I believe this class stopped many students from becoming another statistic.

2. The director of the documentary showed the statistics of the graduating class to demonstrate the class was successful. One statistics they said was that since ethnic studie electives were introduced the graduation percentage of students has increased by 93 percent. Another one that was included in the film was that TUSD has had improvements on Arizona standardized tests. I think one statistic they mentioned that really saddened me was at the time they used 2nd grade data to determine how many prisons they would need in the future. It is just very sad to know that they are already waiting for these kids to fail and yet they decide to do knowing about it.

3. I notice many similarities between the documentary “Precious Knowledge” and the article “Academic and Social Values of Ethnic Studies”. In both it is very evident that the students started to become more engaged with ethnic studies that teaches about their own race. They start to gain appreciation of who they truly are. Both use research to back up their claims. Most of those research showed that students were starting to score better on tests, became better at reading and writing, etc.

4. The topic of Benjamin Franklin being brought up in the class discussion was very triggering. It was triggering because John Huppenthal took it out of proportion and claimed something that was not true. He then used that to prohibit the courses of ethnic studies in the school district of Tucson, Arizona. Relating back to the Radical history article, these government officials put the founding fathers and an extremely high authority. It seems that the founding fathers are their version of God.

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I learned from this document how important ethnic studies are for all individuals, not just the Latino and Mexican Americans. Some students who enroll in the course acknowledge America's imperfections with regard to racial oppression, humanity, and race and seek support for how they are as human beings.

Ethnic studies teach students how to make a difference, have their views heard, and bring people together. I like the raza/TUSD connection with there students ad want to help them  understand more about their history. Not only that, but as noted in the video, students who take the courses have better graduation rates: "The graduation rate for students enrolled in ethnic studies electives have an average of 93 percent."

I assumed that those opposed to Raza studies were predominately white and conservatives who argued that the course divides students by ethnicity and treats them differently even though they were invited and chose not to  attended the class to witness for themselves, and therefore their opinion is prejudiced. They also claimed that it was hate speech and a threaten the  "American way." They debated about Benjamin Franklin not being seen in the classroom and how he is a typical American historical figure but does not realize how demeaning it is to describe them as immigrants in America.

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1. I think this course was successful as demonstrated in the film because it provided a safe haven for the Chicano minority group to thrive.  In Maslow's laws he says that a person can't learn until their personal needs are met; one of those needs being community.  All people need a place to be themselves and be accepted as themselves in order to thrive.  This course allowed students to be successful because it met the student's needs for community and allowed them to learn about themselves while learning the required curriculum.
2. The director of this film uses clips from the classroom as well as statements from students to show the class was successful.  This course was obviously instrumental to students, and based on the given statistics, helped its students to achieve beyond what they would have without it.
3.  Some similarities I've noticed between this documentary and "The Academic and Social Values of Ethnic Studies" are the ideas that minorities are underrepresented in schools and that the underrepresentation and underappreciation of minorities leads to students of these minorities doing poorly or dropping out of school.  Both pieces of media support the idea that when a person learns about their own heritage and history, they are able to connect with the curriculum and be passionate about learning.

4.  I think that students should be able to understand all parts of history and learn from them.  Benjamin Franklin clearly messed up, and that should be talked about. As long as the facts are accurate, talking about them can only help learning about history. Since this founding father wounded the culture, his memory should include that as well. The superintendent and others supporting him should not have been offended by the comments because they were about a fact.

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1.  I think the TUSD La Raza/Mexican American studies course was successful because it allowed for students to learn about their own history and culture. It engaged students to learn and gave students the chance to learn something they can familiarize with. When learning about topics you are actually interested in, it makes you want to continue to learn.
2. The director shows Mexican American studies was successful by showing the impact the class has had on the students taking the course. By the students showing their will to learn it shows that the class made students want to learn. Any class that actually makes people interested is a successful class in my book.
3. One similarity between the documentary and the article is the importance of culture and knowing your history. Howard Zinn talks about why it is so important to learn history from the perspective of multicultural people. He explains that by understanding our history it allows for us to make better choices regarding the future. In the documentary you see students learning about their own cultural history, this allows for culture to be preserved as it is being told.
4. I was shocked to find out how Benjamin Franklin was portrayed in the classroom but that just goes to show the difference in how people view history. We were brought up in school learning about all the great things he did but never the bad. There is always another side to the story.

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I think TUSD La Raza/ Mexican American studies was successful as claimed in the film because the goal of the ethnic studies class was to have an impact on its students academically, and we are able to see the passion behind program shine at the same time this program was in jeopardy. Doing the studies caused the students to become involved in their work to the point where they actually enjoyed it. In the documentary, some parents are shown to express appreciation to the ethnic studies course on behalf on their children, which shows that these students were able to show a change noticeable enough to have an effect on the parents as well. So, the program did have an academic success as shown by statistics provided, but also mental/emotional success that us viewers are able to see.

In the documentary, it is mentioned that “students taking ethnic studies classes show significant improvement on Arizona standardized tests” (Precious Knowledge). This class pushed students to get better grades but overall perform better academically. Also, the documentary uses a lot of videos to show what occurred through the process of the class, and well as the insight on what would happen to this class and why it happened.

There are many similarities between this documentary and “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies”, and the main take away from both is that students benefited personally with the material in these ethnic studies programs. In the documentary, we see the emotional aspect when the future of their ethnic studies program was unknown. In the article, it told us that students were uninterested in learning about the same white people presented, and once the curriculum was turned around their scores bounced up and the students became inspired by the material to continue to stay active in their education.

After reading “Radical History” and listening to the discussion on Benjamin Franklin, I think both views in the article and class are justified/similar. There is more to one part in every story especially in history where one group is always seemingly superior to the other. Not everyone is going to agree on one instance, which is demonstrated with different opinions and viewpoints discussed.

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The Raza studies teach us about our different cultures, learn and experience something new. And according to TUSD students show academic progress when they take ethnic Studies.
He finds causes and solutions for problems that involve students. Some similarities are that sometimes students are not interested in knowing about other cultures and only focus on what they have been taught at home and I think that depends on the education that parents give their children so that they can have an open minded. And some are more inspired and would like to know more about more open topics. When I listen to the discussion I have started to think about other similar topics or any situation and there are always agreements and disagreements between people and there will always be different opinions, and in the end, there is always disagreement, and you cannot agree with everyone.

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I believe the TUSD La Raza/ Mexican American studies course is right and they should continue studying. The man that was trying to take away that class was honestly just saying racist things. He never made sense in what he was saying and just made up lies. For example, when they had said they invented hit o the class so he could hear about what they tough and he has said that they did not invited him until one of the persons on the commit had said they had testimonies and could testify again hm in court he randomly did remember that they did invite him and he just forgot. He obviously did that on purpose and did it to make the class look bad. The guy even himself said that it wasn't right and didn't even give them a chance to see what the class was really about. I think that Raza studies really helped the Latinx students. You can see in the documentary how much the kids really enjoyed the class and the teacher. There is  nothing wrong with trying to learn more about their ethnicity and history about their beliefs. The teachers are really great and look like really nice and respectful teachers. They truly do care about their students' education and what they have to learn. They put their whole heart and soul into their work and want the best for their students. I think the students should be able to learn what they want and not be decided by one racist man who thinks they should only be learning about American studies and history. This was once Mexico's land and a lot of U.S. citizens are born hispanic and they should have the right to be able to learn more about their background history and not let it be ripped from them. There were so many racist things that were said during the documentary that made my stomach hurt and burning the Mexican Flag was so upsetting because why are people so ignorant like that.

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While watching the documentary I felt a wide range of emotions. For the majority of it I was extremely angry because of the actions of the government officials who forced the TUSD La Raza/Mexican American studies course to shut down by using the excuse that it was "segregating" the races and that it was anti-American. Their whole stance made absolutely no sense to me and the racist undertones shone through their discussions, which only made me more mad. As seen in the film and what is also discussed in the "Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies" article, the TUSD program was highly successful in motivating students of color to be involved in their academics and it engaged them in a way that general education did not. The class provided information in history that was normally not talked about and highlighted narratives of POCs. On top of that these classes were taught by POCs, which provided the students with someone they could relate to on a more personal level. The director shows this level of improvement by interviewing a few specific students. Many of them showed no interest in school at all prior to being in the class, and many of them felt so out of place at school that they had no desire to even finish. But through the TUSD class they found a sense of community and a deeper understanding and enjoyment in learning, and by ending the documentary with the students graduating we can see just how beneficial this class was to their success.

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This documentary had bought truth of school education. They indicated that more students of culture are not receiving the necessary education, indicating the failure to teach about their ethics culture. Making students feel less valued and rather stressed about school. Something that everybody needs to be aware of and pleased that more people are becoming more informed.

1. I believe TUSD La Raza/Mexican American studies course was successful as claimed in the film because it bought awareness on school education. It demonstrates how ethical students place less significance on their own cultural heritage. Giving students false information and knowing less of their culture. This demonstrates that students from various backgrounds would have a higher probability of succeeding in school if the educational system was adjusted and introduced to ethics studies.
2. The evidence the director use are past facts and statistic. Such as in  Tucsou, community activism led the city council to form a committee to explore how to improve Latino student achievement and lower dropout out rates. Statistically, now there are rates for Mexican American are the highest of any minority group at 50% nationwide.
3. The similarities are noticed between this documentary and “The Academic and Social Values…” is that students wants to learn their background of history and not history that force them learn in school. Both research on what students wants to hear in school and show how school failed to do so.
4. My thoughts on this discussion on  but something like this shouldn’t be important as it is. Benjamin was clearly wrong, but everyone has their own points of agreement and disagreement, and no matter how hard you try to sway someone's opinion, they are firm about their views and won't back down.

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1. The documentary helped me realize that the education system can be against us learning about our culture. How a lot of students want to learn about their roots and their history. What we saw here was that when they were given the chance to learn ethnic studies, this got taken away. The course was successful because it allowed students to be able to learn about their culture. As it was stated in the article, you are more engaged when you are learning about topics that you can connect and relate to.
2. The director in this film used clips from students as evidence and from the classroom to show that the class was successful. It also shows the impact that the class had on its students by showing their interest in learning.
3. One similarity between the article and the documentary is how they both show that students are more engaged and interested in what they are learning when they have a connection. Both showed that there is an increase in student interest in what they are learning and an increase in grades when they were learning about their history.
4. I was stunned but not surprised at how Benjamin Franklin was being taught in the classroom. This just shows that even though it is not lying, people can portray the story in the way that they gain the most out of without showing the full story and truth. Students should be shown the full story where they can see what really happened without any sugarcoating.

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1. The TUSD La Raza/Mexican American studies course was successful because it was the only motivation some students had in school. Most of the students that were successful in the class were successful because the curriculum discussed and taught was all information that they could associate with. Information that is part of their heritage, their culture, their family, their blood, and their roots. Many students described how they felt that academics were quite the opposite of encouraging; instead, they were pushing them away because of their intimidation or discouragement. The class clearly showed that it had tons of potential to motivate students, and it showed this by sparking the graduation rate to go up. The percentage rate when from 50% to 93% because of the students taking the course.

2. The director filmed different types of clips, using a specific structure while doing so. The director not only filmed their time in the lectures but showed us the student’s stories and how they triumphed in the class.

3. I did notice some similarities between the students in “Precious Knowledge” and some of the students discussed in “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies” article, some of which are that both discussed how students succeed better if the curriculum is things in which they can associate with their personal life and that students seemed to be more interested and engaged when that type of curriculum was presented to them.

4. The mentioning of Benjamin Franklin was kinda random, and to me, it was out of place. It was really irrelevant to what they were talking about before, and to just bring that up was inappropriate, subject-wise.