'Mexican Americans Don’t Value Education!’—On the Basis of the Myth, Mythmaking, and Debunking
According to the reading, what is the real reason why Mexican Americans struggle in schools?
Inequitable schools, political, and institutional structures create obstacles for students to succeed academically.
This type of capital is shown when a student continues to pursue higher education even when no one in their family has gone to college before.
What school within a school accommodation was used to "socially separate Mexican children from Whites"?
Staggered playground periods at Wilson School, where American (White) children were released about ten minutes earlier than Mexican children.
What is the title of the book for the class, and what is the author's name?
“Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality” by David Garcia
Name one reason researchers found that explained why attendance rates for Mexican American students were low.
One of the reasons why Mexican American students had low attendance rates was because they “had no shoes to wear, no clothes to wear, too sick, or they had to work”.
A bilingual student translates for their parents at a school meeting, showing strong communication and empathy skills.
Linguistic Capital
Why did trustees feel urgency to segregate Mexican students in the 1930s?
The school administration felt that rising Mexican enrollment challenged White parents' sense of dominance and ownership over public education, exposing how demographic change threatened racial hierarchies.
What do Valencia and Black call the mindset that blames students’ culture for their academic struggles?
What is “deficit thinking”?
Explain the difference between external and internal involvement in regards to Mexican American families and education.
External involvement includes participation in PTA events and volunteer work, while internal involvement includes involvement within the home, such as motivating kids to succeed in school and helping with homework.
This capital is built from lessons, values, and support that come from family and close community networks
Familial capital
Why couldn't the district achieve complete segregation at first, and what does that reveal about their priorities?
The district couldn't achieve complete segregation at first because the number of Mexican children exceeded the system's capacity. Their priorities were shown to be focused more on ideology rather than logistics.
According to García, what role did “whiteness” play in shaping early 20th-century education policies for Mexican American children?
Whiteness functioned as the unspoken standard for intelligence, citizenship, and morality, creating policies that excluded or “retrained” Mexican students to fit white norms.
The idea that students, particularly of low socioeconomic backgrounds, fail in schools because they and their families have internal defects and deficits that thwart their thinking and skillset.
Deficit thinking
A student gets an internship because their mentor from a community program connects them to someone in the field.
Social capital
How was the increase in Mexican children in Ventura County framed as a "problem" to be solved through segregation?
The problem was redefined through the purpose of "improving schooling conditions for White children."
How does the myth that Mexican Americans don’t value education affect teachers’ expectations and student outcomes?
It leads to lower expectations, tracking, and a lack of support, which then reproduces the very inequalities the myth claims to explain.
What are the 5 ways that Mexican Americans have debunked the myth and shown that they actually do care about their education?
Litigation, Advocacy Organizations, Individual Activists, Political Demonstrations, and Legislation
This capital recognizes the value of bilingualism, storytelling, and expression in multiple languages.
Linguistic Capital
What does this quote reveal about the experiences of Mexican students before high school?
"In June 1939, when Mexicans comprised at least 67 percent of the Oxnard elementary schools, they comprised only 51 percent of the students promoted from the eighth grade."
The effects of the significant academic and social-class barriers leading into high school.
How did Mexican American communities resist or respond to school segregation during this period?
They organized legal challenges, community protests, and demanded bilingual and integrated education.