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Eernal, Ernest M., Jr., Ed.The San Antonic Conference.Eilingual--Bicultural Educaticn---Where DoWe Gc Frcm Here? (San Antcnic, Texas,March 28-29, 1969)Saint Mary's Univ., San Antcnic, Tex.Office of Education (DHEW), Washington,D.C. Bureau of Educational PersonnelDevelopment.28 Mar 6S117p.

EDRS Price MF-$0,50 HC-$5.95*Biculturalism, Bilingual Education,*Ccnference Reports, EducaticnalImprovement, Educationally Lisadvantaged,Educaticnal Prcblems, *English (SecondLanguage), *Federal Programs, HumanRescurces, Inservice Educaticn, *MexicanAmericans, Preservice Education, TeacherEducation

AbstractThe purpcse of the San Antonio Conference

was threefold: (1) tc provide a planning base fcr theEnglish as a Second Language Institute to he held at St.Mary's University; (2) tc have a short-term impact on someof the educational practices in central and south Texas;and (3) tc provide the U. S. Cffice of Education acompendium of the basic lcng-range educational needs of theMexican American ccmmunity in Texas and a set ofrecommendations fcr future prcgram funding tc meet theseneeds. Representatives from the Mexican American ccmmunity,teacher training institutions, regional service centers,professicnal teachers, and school board members wereinvited. Included in the conference proceedings are: (1)

the keynote address and the banquet speech; (2)

recommendations and final reperts made by 6 groups; and (3)

position papers written by the varicus discussicn leaders.A related dccument is ED 027 444. (CM)

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f

tr u The San Antonio ConferenceBilingual--Bicultural°I. L.

Education---Where do wego from here?

Bureau of Educational Personnel

Development, U.S. Office of Education

and

St. Mary's University

w Cq March 28 and 29, 1969ttI 4'4

Edited by Ernest M. Bernal, Jr.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE

OFFICE OF EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE

PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION

POSITION OR POLICY.

THE SAN ANTONIO CON'ERENCE;

BILINGUAL,..BICULTURAL EDUCATION

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HEW

Sponsored by:

Bureau of EducationalPersonnel Development

and

St, Mary's University

March 28 andGunter HotelSan Antonio,

29, 1969

Texas

;0-0

TO

The People of La Razalm,

be they AnglO'sippatidos

or

MexicanAmerican Chicano

Foreword

The San Antonio Conference was held March 28and March 29 under a joint sponsorship of the Bu-reau of EducationalPersonnel Development, U. S.Office of Education, and St, Mary's University.Its purpose was threefold; (1) to provide a plan-ning base for the ESOL Institute to 'le held thissummer at St, Mary's University, Bro. FrancisGreiner, S.M., Director; (2) to have a short-termimpact on some of the educational practices incentral and south Texas; and (3) to provide theU. S. Office of Education a compendium of thebasic long-range educational needs of the Mexican-American community in Texas and a set of grassroot consensual recommendations for future programfunding to meet these needs.

To accomplish this, representatives from theMexican-American community, teacher training in-stitutions, regional service centers, professionalteachers, and school board members were invited.Housing and transportation were prov:Wed for teach-ers and the MexicannAmerican out-of-town partici-pants. Guest speakers and discu.3sion group leaderswere selected because in_the-opiaior of the Confer-ence Coordinator they represent, with a healthy de-gree of diversity, the most enli3htened thought onvarious facets of the education of Mexican-Americans.

The proceedings were exciting. Many Chicano par-ticipants said that for the first time they hadareal opportunity to talk to the decision - makers,

the policy formulators. But disappointments incommunication were also evident, particularly the

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unwillingness or inability of many Anglo and highlyacculturated Mexican-American participants to un-derstand the more circuitous, concrete, incident-bound language of the barrio conferees. Commentslike, "Come to the point", or "Just what are youtrying to say?" were heard frequently enough tobe considered symptomatic of Establishment rigidityand served to punctuate some of the spontaneity ne-cessary for efficient dialogue to take place.

The first day's attendance was greater than wehad imagined it would be. By the second day, how-ever, the numbers-facilities interaction becamemore manageable, for a number of professional edu-cators--Anglo and "Mexican-American" alike--leftthe Conference before the first day was over.Several were frank enough to state their viewspublicly: "These programs are futile. We knowhow to educate these kids"; "Too much emphasisis being placed here on the Mexican-American.We should all be just plain Americans"; "I hadit rough--why can't these people learn?"

Though some of the members of the Mexican",American activist groups were "turned off" bythese displays, most Chicanos persisted in theirefforts and felt they made an important contribu-tion to the deliberation. The credit for thesesuccesses is due to the group management skills ofthe discussion leaders.

In order not to distort the efforts made by theparticipants or misrepresent their views, theirrecommendations are presented in this volume withoutediting. The need to organize and deliveate thethought of the Conference is recognized, however,

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by the inclusion of position papers writtenby the discussion leaders themselves. They wereinstructed to base their comments on the proceed-ings of their respective groups and to elaboratethe pulse of these sessions in their divers ini-mitable styles.

Special thanks are in order to Father Henry J.Casso and Brother Victor Naegele, S.M., for theirconstant support and encouragement; to Dr. JamesA. Forester for his many helpful innovative sug-gestions during the planning phase of the Confer-ence; to Mr. Gil Murillo and Mrs. A. Z. Snid fortheir excellent work in contacting the Mexican-American community; to Dr. Guy Pryor and the Chi-cano students in Project Teacher Excellence whoarranged to have the heartwarming panel discussionon the selection and preparation of bilingual teach-ers; to Mr. Roberto Olivares and Mrs. Carol Epstein,BEPD, for their contribution in Washington; to Bro.Charles Cummiskey, S,M., Dean of Faculties, St.Mary's University, who consented to a released timearrangement for the Coordinator; to 7r. Clark Taylorfor his inspiring flexibility; to Mr. Josue Gonzalezand Mrs. Gloria Zamora of the Bilingual EducationDemonstration and Dissemination Center, San AntonioIndependent School District, for making the bilingualdemonstration possible; and to the third and fifthgrade students of Johnson School and their principaland teachers, for convincing the skeptics of thepotential of the Mexican-American students.

No conference of this nature is ever successfullycoordinated without the help of competent secretaries.We are thankful to Mrs. Marie Jones, grant's OfficeSecretary, for her willingness to help anytime we wereoverloaded with work. We are also especially indebtedto Mrs. Jeanne Garza, Conference Secretary, for herloyalty, patience, and perseverance in a highly ambig-

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uous work situation. Her confidence and genial-ity were unshakable throughout.

Ernest M. Bernal, Jr.Conference Coordinator

Pasquale A. PerilloAdministrative Assistant

St. Mary's UniversityJune, 1969

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPEAKERS

Rev. Henry J. Casso

Dr. Dean Corrigan

RECOMMENDATIONS AND FINAL REPORTS

Group I - Pre-ServiceTraining and Inter-Insti-tutional Cooperation

Group II - Factors inAlienation 47 - 57

Page No.1 - 19

21 - 37

39 - 46

Group III - In-ServiceTraining 59 - 65

Group IV - The Community andPrograms for BilingualStudents 67 - 75

Group V - Involving Mexican"American Professionals andBarrio Representatives inProgram Design & Implemen-tation 77 90

Group VI - Approaches to theEducation of Mexican-AmericanTarget Popaations 91 - 100

Changing the Structure FromWithin and Without; A CommonSense Approach to the Develop-ment and Effective Utilizationof Mexican-American Professionals

101 108

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'FROGRAK

'FridAVIArdh- 28

8:00 a.m. Registration - Mezzanine

9:00 a.m. Welcome Speech- Assembly Rm.

9:15 a.m. Keynote Address - Rev.Henry J. Casso, NationalAdvisory on Mexican-Ameri-can Affairs, U.S.Office ofEducation

10:00 a.m. Coffee

10:15 a.m. Floor group discussionAssembly Room

11:00 a.m. Audience Response - Dr. TomCarter, University of Texasat El Paso, Moderator

11:45 a.m. Lunch

1:00 p.m. Live demonstration -Assembly Rm.Bilingual Education - 2ndand 5th grade classes fromJohnson Elementary School,San Antonio IndependentSchool District

3:00 p.m, Break - South Terrace

3:15 p.m.- 5:15 p.m. Break into topic discussiongroups.Gr. 1 Fre,Service Training

and Inter-institutionalCooperation - Mez. BBros. Victor Naegele,S.M.

Gr. 2 Factors in Alienation -Dr. Manuel Lamirez-Mez.0

Cr, 3 In-Service TrainingJosue Gonzalez -Alamo Rm.

Gr. 4 The Community and Programsfor Bilingual Students -Dr. Jame3 A. Forester -Bluebonnet Room

PROGRAM (coned)

Gr.5 Involving Mexican-AmericanProfessionals and BarrioRepresentatives in ProgramDesign & Implementation -Gilbert J. Murillo-Cactus Rm.

Gr.6 Approaches to the Educationof Mexican-American TargetPopulations.Lee VenzorTexas Room

6:00 p.m. den met -North Terrace - Dr. DeanCorrigan - Education Specialist,

Office of Education

7:30 p.m. Caucus - Assembly RoomMr. Armando Rodriguez, Chief,Mexican-American Affairs Unit,U. S. 0. E., Washington, D. C.

Saturday, March 29

9:00 a.m. General Session - Assembly RoomImpressions of 1st day's achieve-ments.

9:15 a.m. Panel: Project Teacher Excellence,Our Lady of the Lake College, Dr.Guy Pryor, Director

10:15 a.m. Coffee - Foyer

10:30aa.m. Wort groups - same rooms

12:00 p.m. Lunch

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1:30 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

Committee Reports: Eachgroup chairman will givesummaries of recommendationsof his group - Assembly Room

Special General Session:Assembly Room - Forming anassociation of Mexican-American educators in Texas?

5:00 p.m. CLOSE

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Keynote Address by

Fathex Homy j. Ca44o

Member - National AdvisoryU.S. Office of Education

Mexican-American Affairs Unit

Second Trainers of Teachers ofMexican-American Student Conference

I am very delighted to have this opportunityto share some observations and opinions with you,in what I consider a historical conference.

I am afraid of very few things, however onefeels a little uncomfortable speaking in hisown community. So, if you sense a little fwir,it is because I am working under this fear.

To me, it is important that we 'ook atthis conference in the perspective in which itlies. It is the second of three conferencestaking place around the country, sponsored bythe U. S. Office of Education Mexican-AmericanAffairs Unit, and cooperating institutions ofhigher learning in the three different communi-ties. The first was held in Las Cruces, NewMexico. I had to good fortune to give theKeynote Speech. You have in your packet a copyof that talk so that you can refer back to itas background for some of the remarks which I

will make here today.

It was most symbolic that the first ofthe three conferences was held in Las Cruces.The name of that city itself is symbolic ofthe ills, the tragedies, the anguishes, thesorrows and the hopes of the Mexican-Americanpeople. Sensing this symbolism, I challengedthe participants of that conference with thephrase, "I hope that as a result of this Con-ference there will be una nueva resurrecionde Las Cruces de Nuevo Mexico".

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It is significant that the second of theseconferences is held in San Antonio, Texas. SanAntonio can be considered the Mecca of the Mex-ican-American because it is the largest Metro-politan city in the U. S. where Mexican-Ameri-cans constitute almost one-half of the popula-tion. I am a firm believer that if anythingis going to happen to and in the Mexican-Amer-ican community, it's going to have to happenin San Antonio. If it cannot take place inSan Antonio, then I guarantee it will not takeplace any place else.

The third conference is to take place inSeptember in Los Angeles, California. Los Ange'les is the largest city containing the largestnumber of Mexican-Americans in the United States,which Mexican-American population equals thetotal population of San Antonio.

Each of these conferences has specific goals,Each is to develop whatsoever recommendations madeby each and every one of the participants as seenfrom the background and experience represented.It was felt that it is essential to know then dealwith the educational needs, educational programs,the educational ideas which each of you and allthe participants can come forth with.

The Las Cruces Conference produced some 150recommendations, and I understand that you havecopies of these. It is very important that welook at these recommendations and suggestionsbecause we see that they are directing themselvesto eight essential categories: (1) Recommendationsrelated to cultural sensitivity training for teachers.

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(2) Recommendations related to bilingual educationaltraining for teachers; (3) Recommendations concerning

legislation and certification requirements; (4) Re-commendations related to bilingual education and ESLtraining for students; (5) Recommendations concerningevaluative techniques as related to Mexican-Awericans;(6) Recommendations related to the vocational edu-cational programs; (7) Recommendations related touniversities, public schools and community responsi-bility with reference to Mexican-American students;and (8) Recommendations for specific changes at theUniversity and public school level. Note that of the50 recommendations, 1/3 of them dealt with some formof sensitivity for the teachers. This would indicatean area of immediate concern.

It is very interesting to note the cross-section of representation which made up the parti-cipation which gave added strength to the productsof the conference, State Department of Educationofficials, State Boards and representatives, seven-,al Mexican-American community organizations, fourWashington officials, ten administrators from central school offices, four high school administrators,ten grade school administrators, several superinten-dents, and six teacher corps representatives. Thecross-section of educational experience from threestates is quite clear. Z would hope to challengeyou to take the recommendations from Las Cruces andbuild upon them so that by the time we get to Cali-fornia we can compare the existing programer whichare going on supposedly assisting in meeting theproblems which you see. Keep in mind that theserecommendations are not my words, or those of Ar-mando Rodriguez or Ernest Bernal, the coorlinatorof this conference, they are reflections of manypeople from various disciplines.

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A number of things that have influenced thisconference did come from the Las Cruces Conference.That Conference was geared to follow the traditionallines of running conferences. It was not long intothe conference when we realized that something dif-ferent had to take place. Open confrontation be-gan to grow among community individuals, students,and professionals. A confrontation was indicatedby one of the panalists which forced many peopleto come up with different thoughts, new thoughts,and in many instances, first thoughts.

It was found wise to have more students andcommunity people who could express things as theysaw them. It did not take long before it was ob-vious that institutions of higher learning wouldhave to, if necessary, start working closer to-gether with and amongst themselves and especiallywith the communities from which they receive theirpower. Enough for the Las Cruzs conference.

I would like to next acquaint you with theMexican-American Quest for Quality which is thereport from the National Adviso-ry to the U. S.Office of Education--Mexican-American AffairsUnit. Mr. Armando Rodriguez, Chief of this unit,is here with us today and tells me the supply ofthis document is already exhausted. Some copieswill be available to you, and those who do notget a copy will receive one at a later date. (Al-ready the second 10,000 copies are being printed).This document begins with the statement: "Failureto provide education to hundreds of thousands ofpeople whose cultural heritage is different...asa result we see a shameful waste of human resources.The Melting Pot ideology we speak of so proudly hasnot produced a moral climate in which all peopleare accepted on the basis of individual worth."

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I really feel that you and I, representingeducational endeavors in the state of Texas, cantake these expressions from this document and ap-ply them to ourselves.

Another work I would want to familiarize youwith is the document prepared from the notes ofDr. Jorge Lara Braud for the U.S. Commission onCivil Rights. These notes are taken from the Edu-cational component of the Civil Rights hearingswhich took place in San Antonio. The officialname of this work is "The Education of the Mexican-American in Texas, the Challenge, the Conscienceof the State". When you begin to read this parti-cular work, studying the testimony, the data, thestatistics, the anguishes of people, you quicklyrealize that you and I best do something about thisawesome challenge, best do a good job, and do itfrom the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Dr. Lara Braud's paper develops pretty wellthe six critical issues which the National Advi-sory to U. S. Office of Education, Mexican-Ameri-can Affairs Unit stipulates as;

1. Existing educational programs forMexican-Americans have been woefullyinadequate and demand serious evaluation;

2. Instruments are lacking for measuringintelligence;

3. That a very small percentage of Mexican-Americans who could qualify for collegeactually enroll.

Up to this point, too many of us have pointedthe finger under the nose of the Mexican-Americanstudent and blamed him...Commissioner Harold Howe,

the past U. S. Commissioner of Education in his ad-dress "The Cowboy and the Indian" says: "We're nolonger dealing with the Mexican-American educationproblems. We are dealing with the fact that educa-tion has failed the Mexican-American student."Isn't it true fthat there is no other institution,no other business, no other industry that can sur-vive, that can tolerate an 80 to 90 percent drop-out or an 80 or 90 percent product that cannot bemarketable? The only institution which is allowedto survive--and why who really knows--is education.If for over one hundred years there has been this80 or 90 percent dropout, parents and educationistsought to be looking into the educational system tofind out what can be altered and changed to the bene-fit of these millions of students

4. Says there are legal restrictions in variousstates which discourage instruction in lan-guage other than English.

This refers to several states. I am very happyto say that here in the State of Texas we finallyhave legislation pending to handle this last point.

5. The exceedingly high dropout rate of Mexi-can-Americans in public schools. It isvery interesting that the first significantdropout percent takes place around the 3rdgrade- -a good significant indication wherethe blame should lie.

The next period of consequence is in the 7thgrade or 9th grades. As I was coming to the confer-ence this morning, I met two young men standing atthe bus stop and I picked them up. Sure enough theywere two young dropouts who left school at the ageof 15.

6. Society has not recognized, or at leastnot accepted the need for multi-lingual,multicultural school environment.

The report further recommends four imperativesfor successful teaching of Mexican-American children.

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1. Prepare the teachers with the skills nec-cessary to instruct the Mexican-Americanpupils successfully, including developingteachers with bilingual capability.

Note: this is not me speaking, this is the NationalAdvisory speaking.Dr. Estes of the U. S. Office of Education

has said "You have the programs, you have the money,what we need now is to make sure that when itsfunneled down to that one individual who implementsit, the teacher, that they are sensitized to thegoals and objectives of these programs."

2 Instruction in both English and Spanishso that the mother tongue is strengthenedconcurrent with the pupil's learning asecond language. This bilingual instruc-tion must occur in all curriculums at allgrade levels and until the student isthoroughly at home with his second lang-uage.

I might say that the San Antonio IndependentSchool District recently has set out a policywhich is being used as a model in other communi-ties around the Southwest, dealing precisely withthe use of Spanish on the school grounds.

3. Instruction of Pre-School Mexican-Ameri-can pupils so that they are more nearlyready to take their place with others bythe time they enter school.

Thi This may be phrased in other terms; EarlyChildhood Education. This is the future of edu-cation. We're beginning to receive data, and DrCardenas, who is here, is compiling some datawhich shows how effective these programs are, es-pecially with the Mexican-American in his dealingwith the problem of language.

4. Complete development programs for Adultsin both basic education and vocationaleducation. There are vehicles for accomplishing this.

Recently we saw certain prejudicial attitudedemonstrated in the refusal to permit the Mexicanflag to fly over the Alamo. It seems to me thatsuch attitudes underlie Mexican-American-Anglorelations everyday. It seems that the Mexican-American has to fight the battle of the Alamoeveryday of his life. Somehow or another we'vegot to come to some conclusions in the work a-head for us about dealing with these attitudes.I hope you can help with solutions in this confer-ence.

When we look at federal legislation, we seethat there are over 300 proposals to utilize the$7,000,000 provided for bilingual-bicultural edu-cation. To be assured, next year's appropriationis going to have to be bigger because of the fan-tastic and phenomenal interest in the field. Al-ready there have been some programs in this State.At this conference we are deeply concerned withthe State of Texas, yet we hope our recommendationscan benefit other communities.

We are beginning to see the Mexican-Americanask that people from their own ranks be utilizedas advisors to governmentally sponsored programs.It is pretty well concluded, especially from aconversation that I had with an individual inAustin, that if our governor would have had a

situation that exists in Del Rio the decision thathe made to withdraw VISTA would not have been inhaste. In the statewide programs we see that needfor a greater coordination between everyone of youand everyone of us. We see that the State Depart-ment of Education has taken a great step forward,unlike some of our other states, by setting out astatewide design for implementing bilingual andbicultural educational programs. Heading up astate office is Dr. Severo Gomez to see that wecan get this kind of coordination and this kindof direction. The legislation that is being in-troduced is going to need your support. If you

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are convinced of what you hear today then each andeveryone of us are going to have to support thislegislation.

At the national level, I might say that thisNational Advisory report has been accepted as theagenda of action by the new Secretary of Health,Education and Welfare. Recently in an address forthe National Education Association, I challengedthe NEA to accept this as their agenda of action,and they accepted it. We already have the 7,ositionof the Commissioner of Education at the Nationallevel who is now seeking an individual to fill aposition immediately under him in coordinatingthese kinds of plans and working with ArmanloRodriguez's office. On our local level, we seethat already SAISD's bilingual policies are beingutilized as a model.

Next we have an activity on the local level,something that we are going to see more and moreof, the investigation of various school districtsby the Civil Rights Committee. And I might sayhere that there is another community, a largecommunity in our State, that is about due for aCivil Rights review by HEW over the concerns ofthe Mexican-American.

Let's consider something that's happeningnow with Mexican-Americans. We are beginning torealize that there are several major thrusts ir.

the Mexican-American movement. To me, the great-est thrust is in education. Another is employ-ment. I might say that the Mexican-American iszeroing in first and foremost on education, andto obtain this education for their children, theadults and youth are becoming active. You are go-ing to see the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fundtaking many school cases into Court, aiding youthin determining through law the definition of quali-ty education. Dr. Hitt, Superintendent of SAISD,just yesterday, at the school board meeting saidthat we have to find a reasonable solution in pro-viding quality education.

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At the present time a special education commit-tee, a kind of merger of La Raza has been effected.On April 2, we're finalizing a proposal to this foun-dation to receive almost a million dollars to setup our own entity to begin going about and assessingthose institutions, those organizations, those indi-viduals who are receiving federal funds to benefitthe Mexican-American to see how they are actuallyprogressing, how they are producing. If they pro-duce well we will feel the responsibility to pu-blicly support these programs and to recommend thatthey be copied elsewhere. But on the other hand,if there are organizations that are not producing,positions will have to be taken that federal fundsno longer he given to these institutions.

There is a growing awareness in the Mexican-American professional throughout the Southwest thatmany programs and proposals designed to help theMexican-American have been formulated without hishelp and then brought to him and stuffed under hisnose with, "Now, what do you think of it?" If Ican read the hopes and aspirations of the profes-sionals, they now want part of the action in for-mulating thoup,ht, plans, programs, which will beused in the Mexican-American community.

You likewise find one of the individuals whowill be taking part in this conference has beendesignated by'our professionals to take a posi-tion on the latest document of the governor'sreport on education for the State of Texas. Acommittee feels that there is gross lack of sen-sitivity to the culture of the Mexican-Americanin this document. We're not saying that all weneed is money. We're saying that what we wantto see is an immense awareness of the individualMexican-American being accepted as he is, an hon-est look at his strengths and weaknesses, an attemptto build upon his strengths and to overcome hisweaknesses, and a sensitivity to the needs of chil-dren.

There is an effort likewise to develop a Mexi-can-American education Association for the Stateof Texas. Why? If you ask the individual speaking,

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this is an attempt to give identity, provide a for-um for opinion,help give direction, which areneeded. These are a few things that are happen-ing with adults. These are a few of the thingsthat are taking place since the Las Cruces Conf-erence.

As for the students, thespeech in yourpackets give a recent outline. However, in Tucson,Arizona, last week 100 students were dismissedfrom school because they challenged the localeducation system. The Mexican-American LegalDefense Fund was forced to aid them. We find inDenver, Colorado, weekend before laSt, studentsagain walking out of schools. One of our leadersin the community and one of the foremost militantleaders was called to go look at the situation.As he approached the school, he was beaten on thehead and he was arrested. This may not have sig-nificance to you, but this is the man that hascalled a national youth conference that is cakingplace this weekend where there is expected over1500 youth from the Southwest. They're goingconcerned and they're going angry and you can ima-gine what's going to be on the minds of many ofthese youth. In the Del Rio situation we findone of the underlying factors and issues broughtout at.the Civil Rights hearings this past year:The military dependents coming from the air baseare bussed through the poor San Felipe SchoolDistrict to the Del Rio School District, thustaking federal impact monies with them into themore affluent areas, This will be one of theissues that will be addressed intthe Palm SundayMarch in Del Rio.

Other circumstances about our youth; Todaythere is no meeting that takes place wherein ouryouth are not very militantly challenging the de-cisions that are being made in education withoutfirst hearing their voice. Talk to my friend andcolleague Nick Garza. Let him tell you what tookplace at the Advisory meeting in Los Angeles. Itwas .these youth who came into the room and askedfor an hour and took the whole morning. Andwas these youth that resented decisions being made

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by adults who do not consider the anguishes ofyouth. And it was these youth who demanded theresignation of the one individual on the Advisorywho mentioned that he was not aware of the Mex-ican-American problems as he should be. Andit was these youth who demanded a voice ofrepresentation on the National Advisory.

Some of our most outstanding leaders arebeing challenged by our youth because of thisgrowing feeling that now they must be dealtwith. During the Mexican-American EducatorsConference in San Diego two weeks ago, theyouth--college and high school-disruptedthat particular meeting because they felt thattheir issues were not being met.

Last week, I had the good fortune of meetingthe new senator and committee chairman of themigrant sub-committee, Senator Mundell. And Isaw young high school students climb up and downhis back, articulating the anguishes, the hopes,and the admirations of the young people. And Ipresent these activities of the youth to you onlyto let you know that these things have happenedsince the Las Cruces Conference. By the timethat you and I get together again history is goingto be recorded and you and I are going to seemany, many more of these things, agree or dis-agree with them.

Now there are some of us who never are goingto believe what is happening. Some of us arefearful. This is not a time for fear, but forconcern and commitment. Let me read to you partof a letter that was written to me on March 14.This young man wants to go to college.

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Av.{ 7777,

I am a Mexican-American. Being a Mexican-American, I am faced with a number of pro-blems which may not be unique but effect menonetheless. I see that because I am a Mex-ican-American and I have a language barrier,a lack of cultural identity and have receivedan inferior education. I do not make thesestatements without facts. I have been fol-lowing reports from the Office of Civil Rights,February 27, 1969.

A little of my personal background--my earlyyears of school were very hard, I entered thefirst grade knowing and speaking only Spanish,the language of my parents and my home. I

was confronted with the situation that myclasses were conducted in only English and likeall the rest of my friends, I was lost. Thequestions were in English and my answers inanswering were in Spanish. As a result theanswers were considered wrong and not acceptel.Spanish was not allowed to be spoken in school.In this school i was taught that my mother'slanguage was bad, something to be avoided tobe quickly disposed of and that it was nothin3more than a conglomoration of dirty words andphrases. I was taught to identify with a cul-ture that was not of my own and when I leftelementary school, I knew I had been cheatedout of a good education. I began to realizethat all of my teachers in the last terms ofelementary school told me about the worldoutside of my own. She told me we were nottaught because most teachers believed thatwe could not learn and would never be ableto communicate. And for the first time, shemade me aware that 1 was not the same littleboy on T.V.

When I finally entered this Junior High, I wasexpecting to find something different, newfaces, new people, and new ideals. I was very

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rate,/, -;'&71.7.';,?77(d7,..-47:FL?" 4.,-1,7:14.1 /....7;47

very disappointed that my dreams wereshattered. Instead of finding somethingnew, I found the same old thing, only adifferent degree. If one was caught speak-ing Spanish, he would be punished in theclassroom or expelled for several days orboth. Signs in the hall were "Be an Amer",ican, Speak English." And once again Iwas taught I was an American and no onetold me why and how I might be different.In Junior School, I began to notice all myfriends in school were poor, poorly dressedand sometimes dirty. And I began to wonderwhy the Anglos living in the other sectionsof town would be so well off. And I beganto realize the Anglo was called the Americanoand I was called the Mexican°. And yet I wastold that I was an American. What a conflictI went through being told two different thingsand having to accept the two different conr,cepts.

And once again I met a teacher who addedsomething to my life. He was a good worldhistory school teacher who added somethingand through him I began to learn more aboutmyself. At this point the negro problems werebeing discussed and we discussed them and someof us began to wonder if the Mexican-Americanhad problems just as did the Negroes. Weconcluded that we did not. We accepted thefact that we were Americans and that we hadthe same rights as anyone else. But stillsomething told me that we're not right!"

Then he entered high school and he was disappointedagain.

"I was not ciialienged and mosc certainly notencouraged to higher or better things in edu-

16

cation.. As a result, I found myself sittingdown to the same pattern of school work. I

did what I had to just to-pass-and live from..one day to the next to see what would Wappen.And even though I was getting along with someof my teachers, they told me I was capable ofbetter work, that learning and doing well wouldcome to me easily, However, I was never liventhe challenge. An inner conflict grew in meand I began to understand what they were tel-ling me and I really knew the answers to thequestions and teachers knew that I knew them;however, now I could not express myself well,especially on paper. Spelling and sentencestructure are two of my problems and I real-ized that they were not stressed throughoutmy educational development. I have had thissince my elementary grade and have it eventill now."

These are a few exerpts from this beautiful let-ter. For those of you who would like to do some fur-ther studying, I would suggest that you take the in-terviews. documents that have been produced undertestimony and under oath from students during theU. S. Civil Rights Hearings. If anyone would like tohear them, I have the tapes. Again, this in not mespeaking or Mr. Bernal, this student here is 19 yearsof age.

And let me tell you something. The greater per-centage of Mexican-Americans is less than 18 years ofage. We are the fastest growing minority in the Uni-ted States, one with the least education, and the onlyminority that shares a 1500 mile frontier with 200million people to the South. Here we have a peoplewhose youth are saying these things, telling us thatsomeday this country of ours is going to have to dealwith the problems and be able to deal also with the26 countries in the South. Deal with this and theother will take care of itself.

17

, -WS,. s -f ss. . 001. r, r.1 -0-1.

I could go on and give you the experiences ofJoe Bernal, Senator. In his book that he is writinhe tells of how he went into a room and said, "Myname is Jose Maria Bernal" and the teacher said,"What? What did you say?" "My name is Jose MariaBernal," and the teacher again challenged him,"What did you say?" "Jose Maria Bernal"? She said,"Your name is Joe." And he said that later on inlife he went back to look for his record in thatgrade and he looked under Joe Bernal and there wasno Joe Bernal, there was Jose Maria Bernal.

I will tell you likewise there was a letter froa teacher in El Paso, Texas to Mrs. Nixon, the wifeof the President. This teacher, who is not a Mex- I)

ican-American, speaking.with anguish, poured out tothe wife of the President what she has seen happento students, again, it's not me, this one is ateacher. The students have said and are saying "YaBasta. We're fed up". If you and I don't move,they will.

Each of you are here to do something about edu-r1cation I am here to tell you something about what!'the circumstances are all about. I have pointed out`to you something of what is taking place nationally1I have pointed out to you some of the things in thiState, of what adults in the Mexican-American commu-nity are doing, the reaction in the studentI directed your attention to a program of action. 1

Now may I make a few recommendations: (1) Pleasecome up with an answer to how to develop a greaterawareness, human sensitivity and cultural under-standing in teachers. Give us the "how" to vieweducation. Develop a greater respect for students,a willingness to accept our students, whosoever theymay be, as they are, not as we would want them to be

(2) Encourage our young students to higher things.'e have heard the aspirations of a young man. (3)evelop a closer relationship between the univer-

sities and the communities, the colleges and theommunities. I think there must be a new assess-

,

emt of the role of the university in its respon-sibility to the community, a community that under -

rites end supports it. Today there has to be aloser relationship, a closer identification with

the anguishes of the community. In addition, theregust be in this realm a closer working togetherIetween colleges, between departments of education,between regional centers, between the labs and the

niversities, because its the Mexican-American com-.unity that gets caught in this crossfire of inde-pendent action and independent thought.

Finally, I hope and pray that you the edu-cators, you the community, men and women and students,that you can come up with recommendations built!pon those in Las Cruces, so that we can stand tallfrom Texas and present in Los Angeles those thingsthat we're willing to accept as challenge. And if

He do, we can present collective thoughts and posi-tion to the U. S. Office of Education and we canstand together and assure our young people that

Liou and I, who have the position of leadership today,are going to leave them a patrimony of dignity arli

Iivality education. For only then can we look ourlouth straight in the eye and say "Son, we are

trying. We are doing our best."

Thank you very kindly, and God bless you.

19

Banquet Speech by

DA. Dean Comigan

Bureau of Educational Personnel DevelopmentU. S. Office of Education

02.40/2/

ApiampoiemoirlwilirAPPNIMMF

HUMANIZING THE EDUCATION OF HUMAN BEINGS

As I recall the dialogue at the recent Mexican-American Conference at Las Cruces and analyze thediscussions at this meeting, I sense that many ofyou are as concerned about the quality of human re-lationships in our schools and colleges as I am,For example, concern for human relationships wasinherent in the questions raised after the presen-tation by the demonstration class this afternoon;Is this cultural bilingual program going to be ex-panded to include all students? isn't it important

L to have this kind of program in integrated settings?- why were the students in the demonstration class all[I Mexican-American? shouldn't the Anglos participate

in this program? These questions when pushed fur-ther raise larger questions that ultimately relateto the purposes of American education. What is eiu"cation? what should a school be? should it be a placewhere we just teach reading, writing, spelling, atith-]metic and science?

As far as I am concerned our schools for todayand tomorrow must be more than that. It will do uslittle good to prepare individuals who know how toread, write, spell and do math and science, if theyuse this new knowledge to go out and blow up anotherperson's house because he happens to have a differ-ent shade of skin color or he happens to speak alittle differently.

As the Commission on Civil Disorders reportedjust a year ago, "Qur nation is moving toward twosocieties, separate and unequal. Prejudice and dis-

1 crimination now threaten the future of every Ameri-1 can." In my opinion, the most powerful and effective

means of eliminating the poison of prejudice and dis-crimination is education.

At a time when our country is witnessing an"explosion of human interaction" unlike any it hasexperienced before, the schools must be in the fore-front in helping all individuals learn ways to livetogether peacefully as human beings. If you don'tagree with me, then I think your view of educationbecomes much simpler and you will probably not haveto raise the question of social relevance that somany others are raising today.

But once you accept the role of the school asa social institution, then you must also acceptthe fact that as a social institution the schoolmust respond to the problems which emerge fromthe culture in which it exists. And of course,the same thing holds true for our colleges of edu-cation. Since colleges of education are profession-al schools they have no choice but to relate tothe world beyond the campus. They prepare prac-titioners for that world. The value of a collegeof education experiance must be determined by howwell each graduate of that college produces, howwell he fulfills his professional role in thereal world. A college of education cannot separatethe study of the profession of education from theaction aspects of the school and community anymore than a college of medicine can separate thestudy of medicine from the action aspects of ahospital or clinic.

In the Las Cruces meetings and at this confer-ence I have participated in both the formal and in-formal sessions because I hope to gain a deeper un-derstanding of the problems you are facing. Withthese problems in mind I would like to share withyou a few of the statements that I've heard sincethe Las Cruces meeting which I think have relevancefor our discussions here in San Antonio. All of thesecomments were made by students or parents. I willuse these comments to "set the tone" and to providea background for my recommendations regarding new

24

",41. :kr"' r> ri.,1At'f.

directions for our schools and colleges.

I came to this meeting fror a meeting inBoston where the Massachusetts Teachers Associa-tion was having a conference on the new certifi-cation laws that they are now developing tc moreeffectively utilize some of the differentiate)staffing concepts in schools. They are tryin3to "free up" the credentialing system so thatthey can use community volunteers and variouskinds of teaching specialists and auxiliarypersonnel in the schools. At this meeting tharewasn't very much discussion of the topics whi:_lhyou are talking about here in San Antonio. Mostof the discussion dealt with the ittechanics ofcertification: What should we call E person whodoes such and such? How many credits should wegive for this and that? The problems of some ofthe schools in Massachusetts, such as those 4:1-scribed in jleat...LarlyMt and Thirty -sixChildren, were not evident at this professionalmeeting. Needless to say I was really botheredby the level of the professional problems selec-ted for three days of discussion. It all app:-aredempty to me because to discuss a reorganizationof the profession without considering the prOlemsand needs of children and youth seems to me toleave out the why of it all.

Yet I feel my trip to Boston was made per-sonally worthwhile because of a concept, an idea,that I was confronted with there. While waitingfor my place at Logan Airport I picked up theLocal Boston Traveler newspaper and found a gem ofwisdom from a human being I wish had been the key-note speaker at the teachers'conference. In thecenterfold of this newspaper there was a blown-upreprint of a letter that a little fifth graderhad written to the editor. There were severalstick figures at the bottom of her letter. Overeach figure was written--white power, black power,brown power, etc. The substance of the letter was as

25

follows: "What our country needs to do is to unite.What we need right now is RAINBOW POWER." Her letterwent on to point out that no single color is as beau-tiful alone as it is in a rainbow. Yet even when itis part of the rainbow it maintains its own identity-its own self-pride.

Another recent experience in which a student saidsomething extremely meaningufl, at least to me, wasthe other evening on a television show. On thisparticular program, people sit around on the floorand talk to the commentator. During this programthe participants were a group of high school stu-dents discussing what was right and wrong withthe schools and society. All during the show thecamera kept focusing on this one little guy whowanted to say something but couldn't seem to getup enough courage to say it. Near the end of theprogram he finally made his comment. "You knowwhat's wrong with our schools and what's wrongwith our society? We don't have enough chanceto ad lib." This took the commentator back some-what and he asked, "What do you mean, 'You don'thave enough char'e to ad lib'?" The little guystood up and said, "You know, I play in a jazzgroup. Besides the fact that jazz is one of thegreat American contributions, it's great in otherways. When it comes my turn to play, all it sayson my music sheet is, YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN FOR THENEXT 32 MEASURES." I think he has a point for allof us to contemplate. His words are particularlymeaningful because they made us stop to think ofwhat a school ought to be.

Let me ask a question--How many classes have youever had in your own education where people justasked a question right out loud simply because theywanted to know something they didn't know? Have youever been in a class where a student prefaced hisquestion by saying, "You know, I don't know a darnthing about this, but I'd really like to know some-thing about this,

4

26

environment in which you and your classmates reallyrevealed all the things they didn't know? In any ofyour classes has anyone asked a question that theydon't know enough of the answer to know that it wasa so-called "good question"? A basic essential tothe creation of a learning environment which is pro-ductive, one which starts with each person whereis, is the freedom to share what one does riot kno-q!

If we build a whole system where a person can'tadmit where he is, then the system cannot work. Ourschools are presently set up to produce "winners andlosers". So many of our kids are doomed to failurebefore they start. Their performance is judged againstsome preconceived average stldent--or the other 33 intheir class-rather than their own achievement in re-lation to their own abilities. None of us in thisroom would continue to play a game we. had no chanceof winning, yet we expect some of our students to dothis every day. We justify our actions by sayingthat that's the way society is, they have to learato fail. Well, that is not the way society is; Inthis country we still have the opportunity to choosewho we will compete against. If we want to be acabinet maker we compete against advanced physicists.Failure at something we have the capacity to do canbe a learning experience, but mandated failure--con-stant confrontation with tasks personally impossnleto accomplish--is slow death.

We've got to change that if we really believe theschools' primary purpose is to help all thecchiidrenof all the people to develop as unique human beingsin terms of their capacity to grow.

According to recent equal education opportunitiesstudies, about 50% of the Negro children in our majorcities in this country never complete high school,(Coleman,].967). The National Advisory Committee onMexican-American Education reports that the averageMexican-American child in the southwest drops out of

27

school by the seventh year. Here, in Texas, 89% of

the children with Spanish surnames who start school

do not complete the 12th grade. (Southwestern Co-

operative Laboratory, 1969).

We have not yet developed a system of educationwhich is accountable to the client. As professional

educators our clients ought to be every learner,

just as the doctor's clients are his individual pa-tients. We should be held responsible for the in-tellectual development of each child just as doctorsshould be held responsible for the physical healthof each of their patients. Because education ispublic, we have a responsibility to all children andyouth, not just. the sons and daughters of the richand powerful. If 50% of our clients drop out or arepushed out, we have to begin to become professionallyaccountable for that. If we need more resources todo the job or we need to develop a new concept ofschools and colleges, we must make the professionvital enough to demand these changes for the sakeof all children and youth.

Now let me share with you another statement thatI think has special meaning for our discussions here.It was made by a parent during a recent school inte-gration battle that's still going on right now aroundone of the cities in the State of New York. Perhapsyou have read newspaper accounts about the situationthat has caused the strikes and other disruptions insome New York schools. But I'm sure many of you haven'theard what I'm going to tell you--I guess it doesn'tmake good newscopy. In this particular area threeyears ago some parents in one suburban community and

some parents in the city got together and created avoluntary bussing, both ways. The motivation of boththe black and the white parents was to provide theirchildren the opportunity for multi-racial learningexperiences. Now, as a result of the present turmoilwith the black separtists' position on one hand andthe white isolationists' position on the other, thevoluntary open enrollment program is becoming a poli-tical football. It's embarrassing to both sides

28

U

I

to have a successful 'integration program in ithetrmidst, so it is being attacked by both extremiat groups..In defense of the program one of the ladies in theaudience in,a meeting that I attended recentlysomething that I think is repeating again and Again."How can our children ever learn to live together iftheir parents live apart? Our schools must ;providechildren an opportunity to understand each other,. Ifthis opportunity is not provided there is no assurancethat they will never be friends. In order to be some-one's,friend you have to have a long term personal re-lationship with .him, especially if he's going to bea friend you can really trust when the hard times come."

Let me share with you a couple of other relatedcomments made by students who participated in anotherunique intercultural program. As you know, the citiesin the North have racial isolation problems, too. Forexample here are some statistics on the racial make upof the-schools around Rochester, New York. It shouldbe noted that similar conditions also exist in mostmetropolitan areas in the North-. One of every threestudents in Rochester is a-Negro. In the surrounding17 suburbs, all within a 15 mile radius of the cen-tral core of the _inner city of Rochester, the Negropopulation is less than one half of one percent. Twoof the 17 neighboring school districts have no Negroesat all.

But before I continue, permit me an aside. Thereare some people who still say the schools should notbe concerned with this kind of-data. I say the schoolshave no alternative but to be concerned. There is noway we can keep children or youth from thinking aboutracial isolation and the mockery it makes of the Amer-ican dream. When they go to school and sit in an allwhite class, or when they go to a school and sit inan all Negro class, in schools 'within a few miles ofeach other, or when they go to a school and sit in aclass with all Mexican-Americans or all Anglos, there'sno way to turn off their minds. The school ha3 no choiceinaction in this matter is in fact an action. Thekids are in school at leas. 30 hours a week, and we can't

29

stop them from thinking. And the questi 1 of racialisolation surely must occur when they go home andsee integrated shows on television. (You have pro-bably noticed that many of the commercials are nowintegrated.) Neither the schools nor the parentscan hide children from the world. The mass mediahas seen to it that Information now belongs to every-one. There's a whole world of education out there,outside of the school.

In Rochester, after having several suburban-urbanproblems of Democracy Class conferences the studentsdecided that they wanted to do something more. Meet-ing just one day a month at a conference wasn't enougi19Just when they were getting acquainted they had tostop discussions and go back to their own schools.So they got together outside of school and organizedwhat they called the "Student Union for IntegratedEducation." Over 200 students joined, with repre-sentatives coming from each of the 17 suburban com-munities and the city. Two of the students, one L.

from the suburbs and the other from the city, cameup with an idea for a "live-in". The kids from thesuburbs would go into the city and live in the homesand go to school in the city for a week, and the kids,from the city would go into the suburbs and live andgo to school in the suburbs. The students from thevarious suburbs went to their principal who identi-fied a number of problems that they would encounterin carrying out the plan. They would need chaperones;buses, and all these other things. Well, the studentsdidn't stop there, they went to see the Superintendenton a Sunday afternoon. The Supeiintendent told themhe thought the plan was important enough to presentto the Board of Education. So the students went tothe Board of Education. The first time the plan was pro--sented to them they turned it down. They needed morecommitments on who would provide the transportation,housing, chaperones, etc. But they indicated that ifthe students worked out the whole thing and presentedit again, they would receive the approval of the Board

30

1

,I

The plan has now spread to several other districtsin the area. In fact, Rochester in addition to havingthese student exchanges is one of the few metropolitanareas in the country where several suburban school dis-tricts are participating with the city in voluntaryopen enrollment programs. The exchange plan has helpedto pave the way for other programs.

But the plan wasn't accomplished without obstacles.Over 600 people showed up at one of the Board meetings.When the student leader presented the plan I saw himberated by a lady from the local opposition group.She verbally ripped the boy up one side and down theother, and called him everything short of being un-American. She attacked him so vehemently that manyof the people in the aud,.ence, even those againstthe program, were embarrassed. But this youngsterstood and faced her all the time that she was tearinghim apart. When she finished he replied in the soft-est tone I have ever heard, "Ma'am, none of us thinkfor one minute that this is a panacea, but we figureif anything is going to be done about the problemthe young people are going to have to get involved.Furthermore, a very important person once said,'Ajourney of a thousand miles begins with a single step'."

ti

Another student who reported to the Board of Edu-cation after the "live,,in" had this to say, "You knowthat this is the first itme in my life that I think Ihave gotten outside my cocoon. I'm convinced that thekind of education that I've been getting is completely

t irrelevant. We, study the Chinese dynasties and theBoxer Rebellion while Detroit burns. My education hasprepared me for the best of all nonexistent worlds."

11 These commens and much of the discussion I haveheard at this meetings and at the conference in Las

Cruces suggest that what we need is a new concept of1 schools and a new concept of colleges--for 1969. I

think we ought to base these new directions in edu-cation on what we know about the intellectual personnel.

31

uniqueness of human beings.

Let me emphasize just three notions about theintellectual - personal uniqueness_ of human beings.If we agree that they are valid notions, then wecan't possibly go back to our schools or collegestomorrow and do what we did before.

Each person in this room and every student we'veever taught or will teach is unique in terms of hisability to think in the abstract about any subjectmatter. We are all at different levels in our un-derstanding of mathematics, music, foreign language,etc. We're all at different stages of developmentin our ability to think in the abstract about anygiven phenomena. I think all of us would agree withthat.

Another aspect of intellectual personal unique-ness is that we're unique in how we approach learn-ing. We are unique in what psychologists call"learning style ", Some here can think of four orfive ideas at the same time and keep them allstraight; some of us prefer to deal with one ideaat a time. Some of us jump right into an activitywhile others of us like to take a little longer tosize things up before embarking on a new venture.Some of us learn things much better through non-verbal means while other learn better verbally.

Let me give you a special example of what I'mtalking about here. Eastman Kodak Company in Roches-ter, N. Y., is giving school children 8mm camerasand all the film they can use. Instead of writingtheir stories they are telling their stories onfilm. You should see some of the creative filmsthese kids are making.

Experiments like this one convince me that anychild can learn if we can find the best way to teachhim. Maybe we have not proved that statement to betrue but to me it is a better base point to startfrom than the one that says, "These kids can't learn,so why bother to try to teach them."

32

[I

There is so much we have to learn about the"learning styles" of children. The kind of in-novating that's going on in the Pittsburgh Indi-vidual Prescribed Instruction Project is excitingto me. What they have done there in the mathema-tics curriculum, for instance, is to identifytwenty -five mathematical concepts they want toteach at nine different levels of difficulty.They have searched the math literature and havecompiled 4,200 alternative lessons or experiencesthat teachers can use to teach these concepts.Now, you say to yourself, "How in the blazes cana teacher keep track of 4,200 lessons ?" Well,they can't. This is what they do. They developan individual profile on each child. The profilecontains the child's diagnostic record, his pro-gress report; where he is in terms of understand-ing the subject, as well as information about hisstyle of learning, Is he the kind of person wholearns concepts much better by giving him a puz-zle, a simulation game, or an experiment? Theycode such information about each student. As theydiscover a particular way to approach the childbest, the teacher together with the help of a com-puterized information retrieval system containingthe aforementioned 4,200 alternative lessons, se-lects the most appropriate learning option forthat student at the time he is ready for it. Sy-ery student is at a different point in the mathprogram, determined by diagnosis of where he is,what he already knows, and how he approaches thesubject.

In addition to being unique in what we know andhow we approach learning,, as human beings we are u-nique in how we feel about what we know, how we feelabout what we need to know, how we feel about theperson sitting next to us, and how we feel about theperson teaching us. We know from our own experiencethat what is reflected back to us in the eyeballs ofa person who is trying to teach us something has agreat deal to do with what we will be able to learnin the particular setting. We all know that. Theinfluence of teacher expectations on learning isvividly demonstrated in a new book called Pymnalionin the Classroom. This book reports a study which

33

,

Rosenthal, a professor at Harvard, conducted in Cal-ifornia. What he and his associates did was admin-ister to a group of student what they said was aspecial test to identify unusual student abilities.Then, at random, they identified certain studentsas "late bloomers" and told the teachers the testshad indicated they were especially talented.Actually, the test was just a regular old testbut they didn't tell the teachers this. Readthis book and see what dramatic progress the stu-dents made in their new supportive environment.If we really believed what I've just said aboutthe importance of the personal dimension in theeducation of human beings we would change our schoolsdrastically.

Here is a list of a dozen dehumanizing prac-tices and conditions in schools which we would tryto eliminate in 1969.

1. the marking system and

a. the illegitimate comparisons it makes,b. the pressure it creates,c. the failure it produces;

2. overcrowding and resultinga. class loads,b. easy anonymity,c. shallow teacher-pupil relationships;

3. curricular tracking andthe caste system it fosters;

4. the inflexible and non-variable timeschedule and the conformity it demands;

5. the scarcity of curriculum options and theboredom it creates;

6. the grade-level lock-step which ignoreswhat we know about the ways in whichuuniqueselves develop and

a. the accompanying imposition of singlescope and sequence schemes

b. the perpetuation of an obsolete "winnerand loser" concept of education;

34

7. testing insteadlof evaluation and the misuseand misinterpretation of intelligence, achieve-ment and Aptitude tests;

8. failure Wpreflect responsibility for lack ofprogress achieved by students;

9. the "objectivity" model which prevents meaning-ful relationships from developing between tea-chers and kids;

10. the "right answers" syndrome;

11. racial isolation anda. the prejudice and discrimination it breeds,b. the "defeatist" or "snobbish" self-concepts

it nurtures,c. the mockery it makes of the American dream;

12. demonstrated distrust instead of demonstratedfaith in human beings.

These same dehumanizing elements exist in many ofour colleges and universities. If teacher educationis to become relevant to the demands of the times,colleges of education must also rid themselves ofthese dehumanising features. A college cannotpreach one thing and do another.

The quality we need most in our teachers todayis professional commitment. I don't think you canproduce professional commitment through teacher edu-cation programs that are described in terms of somany credits, courses, grades, transcripts, diplomasand certificates. These are mechanical mattersthat too often become more important than the verypeople they are intended to serve. The way that Ithink you produce people with professional' commit,ment is to get them into confrontation situationsin the real world of the teacher and challenge themindividually and with their peers to act on thinking.This is a scholarly approach to teacher education--developing the ability to identify and use knowledgeto make more intelligent educational decision.

35ti

The -:core of -our teacher educa-tion curriculum should be the most persistent ere.,

gagement problems that educational' personnel con-front in their chosen professional roles.

At present, there is a we-they attitude in re-gard to colleges and school systems. Because ofthe need for constant re-education of in-serviceteachers, and new differentiated staffing andcareer advancement programs which start as soonas a person thinks he wants to teach, our col-leges, schools and other community educationalagencies must begin to operate as a single sys-tem in which the training program for educationalpersonnel is continuous and trainees flow throughthe different components of the system.

Such collaborative arrangements are alsonecessary if we are to develop comprehensivechanges in American education. It will do littlegood to change the schools if the colleges staythe same, and vice-a-versa.

We need to develop a new conception of collegesof education. The college should no longer bejust a place on a campus. Its arms should extendto the total community. Part of it might be ina community action center in the barrio, part ina Head Start pre-school, part in several innova-tive elementary and secondary schools or "teach-ing centers," part in local educational techno-logy industries, part in the pediatrics divisionof a hospital, part in a correction institution---it ought to exist wherever there are resourcesfor training educational personnel. And keypersonnel who have demonstrated competence asinnovators and trainers in these "centers ofinterest" should have positions in colleges ofeducation as adjunct and/or conjoint facultymembers.

36

As a result of the opportunity to share ideas atthis conference we all have a clearer view of atleast one thing we can do tomorrow to improve thesituation in our respective schools or colleges.There's not a person here who doesn't feel stronglyabout needing to do something. We wouldn't be hereif we didn't care.

But in addition to knowing (cognitive) and feel-ing (affective) there's something else we need;that's action (motor behavior). We need to actand we need to act now. In many parts of the coun-try because of our evasion of responsibilities andour unwillingness to change, it is now five llinutesto midnite.

We need to move ahead with new programs forMexican-Americans, and new programs for all chil-dren and youth. Let's go back to our respectivefields of endeavor and identify at least one ortwo concerns to which we are willing to commit ourprofessional lives. Together we can produce schoolsand colleges that are better than any of us couldbuild alone. That's RAINBOW POWER. Let's applyit where it's needed most -win the setting wherewe work.

37

Li

RECOMMENDATIONS GROUP ONEPre-Service Training and

Inter-Institutional Cooperation:Evaluation of Programs and USOE Guidelines

Bro. Victor A. Naegele, S.M.

Recognizing that recommendations from sourcesexternal to the sphere of the teacher trainingschools sometimes have considerable impact, thefollowing all-encompassing recommendation is sub-mitted.

It is recommended that the United States Of-fice of Education provide funds which would enableconsultative groups, in cooperation with StateDepartments of Education and regional Accreditingagencies, to make suggestions for change in teachertraining programs according to the following sug-gested topics.

1. Communication with...a) residents of the area to be served

by the future teachersb) the schools of the area to be served -

both. elementary and secondary.c) all departments of the Universityd) students of the teacher training

program

2. In-service training of Educators who trainteachers.

3. In-service training of teachers now active-ly engaged in schools.

4. Competency-in. a-second language for futureteachers.

5. Degree of inculcation of cultural sensiti-vity--including the vernacular language

sy/39

6. Reformulation of the Philosophy of Education ofthe teacher training program.

7. Continuous evaluation of the Educational product

8. Structure of the devartment of Education andits adaptability tc its function.

9. Awareness by student teachers of grassrootsmovements and social problems.

10. Curriculum--formulation of new or socialimplementation of present curriculum.

11. Positive recruitment of teachers. []

12. Cooperative efforts with Junior Collegeeducators.

t.

13. Consortium of regional teacher training colleges.

Recommendation for future conferences

It is recommended that any future conferenceof this nature include:

a) representation from Junior Colleges

b) representation of education from Mexico.It is felt that any true Bilingualismcan benefit greatly from the experi-ence of Mexican educators.

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Pre-Service TrainingAnd Inter-Institutional Cooperation

by

BAD. tactok A. Naegete, S.M.

DirectorOffice of Mexican-American Studies

St. Mary's University

41

In attempting to evaluate the Conference on Bi-lingual Education held in San Antonio, one asks thequestion: what were the objectives or goals? Althoughstated in the original proposal, the objectives didnot appear in a finalized form prior to or at theoccasion of the Conference. Consequently it is dif-ficult to evaluate the Conference which seemed directedespecially to Institutions having the least finan-cial resources for initiating new programs.

It was our impression that the Conference wasoriginally intended to initiate change within theTeacher training institutions of Texas. This im-pression was further established by the prelimi-nary meeting which was held and which individualsfrom both the Valley and northern sections ofTexas attended.

However, the attendance of the Conference it-self seemed to be limited to teachers of San Antp-nio and South Texas with few administrators presantfrom any teacher training institutions local orState. Few policy makers of Texas Education Agen:yand none from the University of Texas were presenteven though the newly approved San Antonio Branenof the University of Texas will soon overshadow lo-cal institutions. Apparently, the teacher traininginstitutions having greatest representation werelocal: Incarnate Word College, Our Lady of the Lake,and St.Mary's University.

All of the local institutions are already o7er-ating on behalf of bilingual education, especiallyOur Lady of the Lake and St. Mary's University.Furthermore, the local institutions are basicallyinitiating and operating teacher training progralson behalf of teachers of bilingual children usingonly institutional resources and existing Federalfunds such as student loans and work,-study programs.

47Q/43

The direct interaction and participation of somemembers of the Washington agency seemed confinedto the morning general assemblies during whichthe representatives took the floor to indicatehow the participants should think and which di-rection was to be followed. One received thedistinct impression that these representativeswere telling the participants what they oughtto officially record so that the Washingtonoffice might be able to formally indicate therecommendations of the Conference were the "voiceof the people." Perhaps the bilingual childrencould best be served by immediate implementationof the programs which Washington desires ratherthan expending months and monies upon a Confer-ence which purports to express the "will of thepeople."

Inasmuch as the Conference seemed oriented toinitiate change, to promote adaptability and toadvocate relevancy it was disappointing to findthat the Washington office sent a speaker for theformal banquet whose talk was so irrelevant tothe Conference that the one and one quarter hourspeech could have been given to any group ofteachers of any grade anywhere at any time. Onlyonce in the hour and a quarter did the speakerrefer to the Mexican-American or bilingual child-and that in a superficial manner. Viewing thistotal negligence by Washington, one finds itdifficult to seriously accept Washington exhor-tations to others to completely reorganize thestructure of teacher education.

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Inasmuch as teacher training in the San Antonioand South Texas area will shortly (1971 or '72) bedominated by a Texas State institution, the recom-mendations of group one (Pre-Service Training aniInter-Institutional Cooperation) seem especiallyrelevant. The use and recommendations of object-ive evaluation groups can be especially effectivein promoting change and adaptability.

Past experience indicates that monetary indqce-ments from Washington promote immediate change addadaptability by all groups (except, perhaps, Was%-ington groups which seem to become more bureau-cratically structured).

Since Washington financial aid contributes tochange and adaptability, the most rapid implemen-tation of desirable programs might be effected inthose institutions which have initiated programsusing their own meager resources and Federal fundsalready in existence such as student loans andwork-study programs. Teacher training programssuch as Texas Excellence at Our Lady of the Lakeand Project BEST at St. Mary's University are wellplanned and could immediately expand with addition-al financial aid for support of student and forthe employment of additional faculty and clericalstaff. The programs could thereby by expanded inFall 1969 without any planning grants or other di-latory action.

Prior to the Conference, the three institu-tiom of Incarnate Word, Our Lady of the Lake andSt, Mary's University created a Commission On Co--operation. directed by Dr. Sterling.Wheeler_for theprime purpose of using all resources fully. More

45

cooperative effort has yet to be expanded with thelocal Junior College.

It is important to note that the list ofrecommendations of group one of the Conferencefollow from the concept of an objective con-sultative group working in cooperation withthe State Department of Education and regionalaccrediting agency (neither present at the con-ference). The wording of the introductory para-graphs is important for it was the intent of thisgroup to have the cooperative effort in order tomake the State department and the accreditingagency aware of the need for change so that suchchange might be more possible.

46

RECOMMENDATIONS GROUP TWOFactors in Alienation: The Schools and the Curriculum

Dr. Manue_ Ramirez III

1. The State Board of Education should proviie text-books which will acquaint the Mexican-Americanchild with the history of his ethnic group ar.dwith the roles which members of his group playedin the history of the Southwest and the UnitedStates.

2. Whenever the above mentioned material is not a-vailable in textbook form, local school distr4.ctsshould encourage teachers to use other sources.Funds should be provided to cover reproductioncosts.

3. Local school districts should be given more flex-ibility with respect to textbook adoption. TVswould permit them to select books which are themost relevant for Mexican-American childr3n.

4. Schools should make every effort to employ Mex-ican-American parents as teacher aides. collegeprofessors throughout the Southwest, who areconcerned with this problem, should approachrepresentatives of school districts in theirgeographical area and urge that they apply forteacher aide funds.

5. Counselors should hold "cultural awareness"sessions in those 3chools where Mexican-Ameri-can students are" interacting with peers ofother ethnic groups. The purpose of this ses-sion would be to acquaint students with tilecharacteristics of the different ethnic groups,and to discuss possible conflicts which may a-rise because of misunderstandings.

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6. The Education Service Centers should developa program for teaching Spanish to teacherswho are currently working with Mexican-Ameri-can children.

7. Teacher training institutions in the stateshould establish institutes or centers' nearschool districts with large Mexican-Americanstudent populations. Professors could, thencome to these centers to work with teachersand teacher trainees.

8. Since failure experiences are most damagingin the first years of school, an elementaryprogram which provides maximum interest, en-couragement and success should be based onthe languages and learnins experiences whichthe child brings with him to school.

9. The State Board of Education should be askedto make a statement of policy to the effectthat the schools should not be agencies ofacculturation (ie.,that the linguistic andcultural background which the child bringswith him to school will be respected andreinforced).

10. Television and radio programs which featureMexican-Americans who have achieved successthrough education, provide a powerful moti-vating force for Mexican-American children.For this reason radio and TV stations inTexas should be encouraged to follow theexample of KENS and KSAT in San Antonio.

48

The Schools and Alienation ofthe MexicanAmerican Student

by

DA.. Manuel Ram, kez III

Assistant Professor of PsychologyRice UniversityHouston, Texas

49

To address oneself to the topic of Mexican-American student alienation seems, on the surface,a repetitive and wasteful effort. Scholars andeducators have been calling our attention to thisproblem for the past thirty years, yet there halbeen little corrective action. These, however,are different times. The Mexican-American CivilRights Movement, which many believed would nevercome, is now upon us. The recent events in schoolsof Los Angeles, Edcouch-Elsa and Kingsville indi-cate that our young people are finally acting outthe unhappiness and frustration which for so longthey hau borne in silence. Concomitant with thebeginning of the Civil Rights Movement, has beenthe fact, that Mexican-Americans seem to have fi-nally tapped the conscience of the country. Forthe Mexican-American, then, the Zeitgeist is atlong last here.. The following ideas, therefore,are presented in the hope that today, in contrastto the past, people are ready to act; that theyare willing to make changes in themselves and ininstitutions within society which will benefitthose who have been excluded and ignored for solong.

It is unnecessary to quote the astronomicallyhigh dropout rates for Mexican,4merican studentsin Texas and other states in the Southwest, mostof the readers of this paper will be well acquain-ted with these. Suffice it to say that droppingout is the most obvious and damaging symptom ofalienation. It is necessary, however, to identifythose aspects_of the educational system with whichthe Mexican-American student is unhappy.

There has been studies which have providedsome very interesting data in this area. A sur-vey in some schools in the Los. Angeles area byDemos, 1964, revealed that Mexican-American stu-

..,re7/51

dents expressed attitudes toward education whichwere more unfavorable than those expressed by acomparable group of Anglo-Americans. Specifi-cally, Mexican-Americans expressed unfavorableviews on the following issues: (1) importanceof an elementary education, (2) staff concernabout students, (3) desirability of droppingout of school, (4) desirability of belonging toa gang and (5) importance of regular attendance.A more recent study by Ramirez and Taylor, in twoschools in Sacramento, replicated some of Demosresults and identified additional aspects of theschool system with which Mexican-American studentswere dissatisfied. Students indicated that teachers 11did not understand their problems, that it was hardto take orders from a woman, and that they shouldbe permitted to speak Spanish in school. Although I

the results of these two studies are rather meager,they do, nevertheless, provide hard data relevantto Mexican-American student alienation and identi- I

fy those characteristics of present educationalsystem which are contributing to it.

Writers who have concerned themselves with the [I

alienation problem in the Mexican-American havefrequently referred to lowered self-esteem andself-rejection as consequences of alienation. Mycolleagues and I have found evidence which supportsthis claim. We have used several psychologicalinstruments to obtain this data. One of our mosteffective methods has been a projective techniquewhich is a variation of the Thematic AppreceptionTest. It consists of ten picture cards (pictures Li

show students, parents, and teacher interactingin settings which have some relevance to education,i.e., a school room, a play ground, etc.) to whichthe child tells stories. The results we have ob-tained indicate the Mexican-American students feelinsecure, fearful of failure and tend to perceiveteachers as punitive. These findings have beenreinforced by the results we have obtained withthe Child Manifest Anxiety Scale. Not only areMexican-American students more anxious than Anglo

52

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students, but they are also very fearful of criti-cism. The results we have'obtained with respectto self image, then are clearly indicative of in-security, undertainty, and tension.

A discussion of the consequences of alienationmust end with a consideration of the causes. Hereagain our psychological measuring instruments havebeen invaluable, particularly our story tellingtechnique. Themes of stories told by Mexican-American students support the "culture clash hy-pothesis" as one of the most prevalent causes ofalienation, that is, interpersonal conflicts Be-tween students and teachers, students and parents,and student with their Anglo peers are a conse-quence of differences b...itween the Mexican,-Americanand Anglo cultures, for example, the student whocannot refrain from speaking Spanish in school,because of the loyalty which he feels he owes tohis ethnic groups, and the teacher who believesthat to speak Spanish is unAmerican. Parent-stu-dent conflicts occur when the Mexican-Americanadolescents demand the same freedoms which areenjoyed by their Anglo peers, and parents are un-willing to accomodate them, because they feel thattoo much leniency will result in their childrens'disrespect and will make the family the object ofcriticism and ridicule in the barrio. Conflictbetween students can occur when Anglos interpretthe Mexican-American adolescent's subservienceto and respect for his parents and other adult:as weakness and dependency. Many interpersonalclashes, then, which occur in school, involvemisinterpretations of behavior due to a lack ofknowledge about culture.

Another cause of alienation is the curriculum.Most of the instructional materials used in schoolsare neither interesting nor relevant to the Mexican--

American :culture, thus the child cannot make useof the experiences which.he has had in the barrio.There are few bilingual programs in operation inthe Southwest and .most of these use "textbook"

53

Spanish which in many cases is as unfamiliar to theMexican-American child as is English. In additionmost of these programs use the same irrelevant cur-riculum, merely translating it into Spanish, as ifthis were to magically render it more effective.The educational process doesn't utilize the learn-ing style which the Mexican-American child has al-ready developed; it bypasses it, and attempts toimpose a new one The approach of the teacher isoften radically different to that of the pastteachers (i.e.,parents) of the Mexican-Americanchild. In addition, techniques used to motivatehim are not those with which he is familiar, neitherare the rewards used in schools. There is littlerecognition, then, that by the time the child comesto school he has already had many experiences withlearning and has developed a style of learning in-cluding development of preferences for differentrewards and motivational techniques.

The curriculum and educational techniques pre-sently employed by the schools, then, produce anidentity crisis in the Mexican-American student;they widen the gap between the culture of hisparents and that of his teachers; they force himto make a choice which can only result in frus-tration and despair.

Alienation is also engendered by the factthat morale of teachers in schools with largeMexican-American populations is sometimes low.Within the system, teachers in barrio schoolshave very little status. Dissatisfaction inteachers is perceived by students who then behaveaccordingly.

Alienation of the student also occurs throughalienation of his parents. Most contacts whichMexican-American parents have had with school per-sonnel have been in connection with some unpleasant

subject such as their child's poor performance inschool. Mexican-American parents who have attendedPTA meetings or other school functions have feltill at ease, because these were not conducted inSpanish and/or the people in charge were insensitiveto their system of values. The child senses thediscomfort and alienation of his parents toward theschool, even though feelings may never be verbalized.

This by no means exhausts the causes of aliena-tion, but it does provide us with a start towardsdeveloping corrective measures. There is need todevelop an educational program which builds on theinterests and experiences of Mexican-American chil-dren. Experts in the disciplines of Psychology,Education, Sociology and Anthropology should bebrought together to develop this program. It mustutilize cultural and historical materials to cap-ture the interest of the Mexican-American childand to support his identity with his ethnic group.It must be bilingual, but should initially usewhatever dialect of Spanish the Mexican-Americanchild is most familiar with. It must teach Span-ish to the teachers and sensitize them to the Mex-ican-American culture. It should give the teachersa spirit of accomplishment and enthusiasm which on-ly comes with innovation.

Mexican-American parents must be involved in theeducational process. School districts should seekfunds to train patents as teacher aides, but moreimportant than this, schools must acquaint parentswith the curriculum so that they in turn mighthelp their children with their school work.

Mexican-American parents have frequently re-ported to me that they feel very badly about notbeing able to help their children with school as-signments. Helping the MexicannAmerican parent tohelp their children will improve relationships be-

55

tween parent and school help to narrow the gapbetween the values of the home and those of the

school. Schools should also hire Mexican-Americans

who have had experience in community organizations

to solicit parental opinion and to employ new

techniques to encourage parents to visit the

schools and participate in the educational pro-

cess. The effect of parental involvement in over-coming Mexican-American student alienation cannot

be emphasized enough; our studies show that when

parents take an interest in the child's education,

motivation to achieve improves significantly. It

must be emphasized, however, that parent partici-

pation can only be insured when schools are nolonger viewed as a threat to the values of theMexican-American culture.

In-service and pre.-service institutes should I]

be established in the barrios. Here studentteachers could become acquainted with the character- I]

istics of the Mexican-American culture by engagingin participant observation. This would also pro-vide them with an excellent opportunity for learn- El

ing Spanish. College personnel and other outsideconsultants could teach seminars and chair groupsessions on various topics relating to educationof Mexican-American children.

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There are other possible corrective measureswhich are less ambitious than those mentionedabove. Historical documents and other materialswhich provide evidence of the contributions ofSpanish speaking people to the history of theUnited States should be used in the schools.Teachers in several schools in the Southwest arealready using these materials to supplement text-books, but they frequently do not have fundsavailable for reproducing library materials.School districts could draw up proposals to obtainthese funds.

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School districts could also-prepare proposalsto seek funds for providing instruction in conver-sational.Spanish for teachers working schools wit%large Mexican-American studeat populations. Alongwith classroom instruction there should be provi-sion for teachers to practice speaking the languageby visiting parents of students (initially theycould be accompanied by Mexican-American aides whoare familiar with the neighborhood). These visitswould not only have the effect of helping the tea-cher to learn the Spanish dialect used in thecommunity in which she is teaching, but also im-prove relationships between the school and the

home.

Funds should also be sought to hire behavioralscientists who have expertise in group dynamics forthe purpose of holding cultural awareness sessionsin schools where Mexican-American students are interacting with peers of other-ethnic groups. The

situation in which Mexican-American, Anglo-Americanand black students in the same school become se-gregated from each other and-eventually come intoopen conflict is, unfortunately, all too common.The group dynamics specialists, could, then, eval-uate the total school environment and propose cor-rective measures which would lead to better under-standing and relations between members of the dif-ferent ethnic groups.

In conclusion, it seems that two observationscan be made regarding the events of the past fewyears--it can be said that our way of life is dis-integrating that our society is sick, that we mustsuppress the voices that identify the problems a-round us; it can also be said, however, that weare living in very exciting and dynamic times, thatwe have acquired valuable insights into our problems,

that people and institutions are now more willing tochange than ever before, that we can participate inthe creation of a new more effective social order.

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/,

InService Training:The Placement, Development andRetention of Bilingual Teachers

by

Jozue M. Gonzatez

DirectorBilingual Demonstration and Dissemination Center

San Antonio Independent School District

RECOMMENDATIONS

General:

The number of bilingual programs presently inoperation and the variations and differences whichexist in them insofar as objectives, approaches, andoverall implementations are concerned make it diffi-cult to standardize a teacher training program whichwould fit all of them. Nevertheless it seems neces-sary to have some general guidelines for the prepara-tion of teachers which could possibly be built intothe statewide design for bilingual education soonforthcoming from the Texas Education Agency.

It would seem appropriate perhaps to organizea teacher training advisory group which would makespecific recommendations to the Agency about thebasic training needs which might be included in sucha design. These specific recommendations wouldtake into consideration some of the realities thatpresently exist and would strive to work around them.For example, it is believed that there will not beenough bilingual teachers in Texas to take and placeone in every classroom. Efforts should be madethen to improve the competencies of those Spanish-speaking teachers in the state and also to raise thelevel of proficiency of those teachers who havesome knowledge of Spanish through a comprehensivetraining program.

RECRUITMENT;1. The degrees of bilingualism which a teacher

might possess should be looked at in a posi-tive rather than a negative way. In otherwords varying proficiency levels of teachersshould be accepted and respected and also im-proved through a teacher training program.

Information dissemination efforts should becarried out in the colleges and departmentsof education to encourage juniors and seniorswho are about to go into the field to enterin the field of bilingual education.

3. Contacts should be made with the colleges anduniversities to encourage them to implementhigh intensity language programs to betterprepare their future teachers to teach inbilingual programs.

4. Efforts could be carried out to retrainbilingual professionals to enter the fieldof bilingual teaching.

5. The use of para-professionals or teacheraides in bilingual education should be ac-celerated and improved. Insofar as possiblepara-professionals should be put on careerladder arrangements so that they might continuereceiving formal training and eventually becertified and earn a degree in teaching.

6. Local districts should make arrangements withTEA to provide for more flexibility in caseswhere floating teachers might be used in bilin-gual programs. Present ADA requirements makeit difficult to assign teachers as floatingteachers in a bilingual program,

7. Insofar as possible parents from the Mexican-American community should be utilized as para-professionals in the classroom and also used i,planning, particularly in those areas of the pro-gram dealing with intercultural considerations.

RETENTION:

The recommendations of the group as far as reten-tion is concerned centered around two areas: one wasthe concept of differentiated staffing procedures tomore fully utilize the resources available within thefaculty; another was the idea of adequate compensa-tion for skills which are required of a teacher in abilingual program over and above those which are re-quired of a teacher in a monolingual teaching situa-tion. It was agreed that teachers must undergo spe-cial training for bilingual teaching and therefore

62

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bring to their classrooms certain knowledge and ex-perience which should be recognized and rewarded.The concept of differentiated staffing would allowfor the use of teachers with special training andexpertise to function as leadership people for theircolleagues. Many school districts do not now haveprovisions for this type of person who could wellbe called a "specialist" and who might functionboth in her own classroom and also render assistanceto other teachers who do not have the training 3rexperience that she herself does. Also in the areaof retention the group felt that teachers would bemore motivated to remain at a job and to contributeto their fullest capacity if they were also involvetiin the planning of programs and if their ideas werecarefully considered before policy decisions aboutprograms were made. Basically the same thing wassaid of teachers that is being said of the community;involvement and participation brings about increasedcommitment and enthusiasm,

IN-SERVICE TRAINING:The discussion on in-service training began by

a consideration of the fact that to date school dis-tricts depend on colleges and universities for in-service training of their teachers. A question wasraised as to the extent of participation of theprograms. The group felt that teachers should haveor should, be given more voice in what their in-ser-vice training programs should be and that the tea-chers themselves should conduct these programs. Theutilization of outside resources specialists andconsultants should be continued, but the greaterresponsibility could be placed in the hands of theteachers who are expecting to benefit from suchinstruction.

The participants also felt that summer traininginstitutes, EPDA and others, were inadequate in numberas well as in content. They felt that to a large de-gree the content of these institutes were based onlinguistics whereas the real needs of these teacherscan be met only with a more comprehensive orientation.

63

They felt that such training cbould also include thesociology and history of the population group thatthey are serving. They felt that the institutes couldbe better coordinated with what is actually done inthe classrooms of the area from which the participantsare drawn, that the localization of institutes couldproduce more'practicable solutions. In other words,institutes should be built around on-going programsin the region rather than being open to participantsfrom throughout the country as so many times has beenthe case. The group felt that institutes and work-shops should make provisions for extensive practicumexperiences for teacher in the particular methods andtechniques they are expected to implement the follow-ing September. They felt that some of these kindsof things could also be done in in-service coursesthat could be offered by colleges and universitieson an extension basis, in the evenings or on Satur-day mornings. The group reacted very favorably tothe ideas expressed by Dr. Corrigan about the con-cept of adjunct faculties on college and universitystaffs who would be available for work outside ofthe campus. They felt that these adjunct facultymembers should be people who have themselves beeninvolved in bilingual programs and who can speakfrom practical experience on particular problems.

Again on the subject of summer institutes andworkshops, and related to the involvement and par-ticipation idea, the group felt that closer cooper-ation in planning is absolutely essential and per-haps colleges and universities might consider hav-ing workshops and institutes that better, fit thesummer schedules of teachers that they are serving.Given the fact that many elementary teachers aremothers and housewives, institutes should be plannedin such a way that they do not cause any undue dis-ruption on the summer family life of teachers. Theparticipants also demonstrated that some summer in-stitutes are often limited to a certain number ofparticipants. It was realized that there is onlya certain amount of money available to pay stipendsfor participating teachers, but the feeling

64

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was that, some .effort should be made to .open institutesto other: persons -who might not receive stipends butwho would be willing to participate and even paytuition and expenses themselves in order to benefitfrom this instruction. The payment of stipends wasconsidered essential both in summer institutes andworkshops and also in in-service programs which re-quire teachers to remain for extended periods of timeafter school or to attend on Saturdays.

Once again the matter of content of these pro-grams arose and the teachers again emphasized theneed to have subjects included in these workshopinstitutes in addition to linguistics and languageteaching techniques. The group reiterated its con-sensus that teachers should be actively involved inplanning the content. Once again the remarks ofDr. Corrigan were mentioned and note was made of thefact that his investigations into the nature of whatconstitutes good teaching in urban schools revealedthat characteristics of good teachers did not neces-sarily deal with methodology or knowledge of subjectmatter. His points on expectations of teachers to-ward their students, on enthusiasm and respect, andon the humanness of an effective teacher were wallreceived. The participants of the group were mostemphatic about seeking ways through which theserecommendations can be built into teacher trainingprograms.

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The Community and Programs for Bilingual Students:Administrative, and Political Implementation

by

D4. _lama A. Fonuten

Executive DirectorCharacter Education Project

cA 7

RECOMMENDATIONS GROUP FOUR

To assure sound and worthwhile outcomes fromthe group session having to do with the communityand bilingual programs, the following questionswere deemed necessary:

1. What community barriers exist to imp's-,menting bilingual education programs?What kinds of bilingual programs meetthe most resistance?

2. What are the community characteristicswhere bilingual programs have been slowto root? What factors seem to promotecommunity acceptance?

3. What can educational leaders do to fur-ther the implementation of bilingual pro-grams?

4. Should the state organization of schoolboards have a part in this?

5. What legislation is required to legitimizeand encourage bilingual education?

Not all of these questions could be answeredduring this conference nor could they be discussedin depth. However, it is felt that the objectivesof this committee meeting were met, as reflectedin the committee's recommendations. The main ob-jectives were to make specific recommendations andcommitments for the improvement of the communityand to give direction for the implementation ofprograms for bilingual pupils.

409

BARRIERS DO EXIST

Barriers do exist within a given community and

within the apparent power structure which slows pro-

gress in bilingual education, Within the school

structure, the administration is often the barrier.

We have found from experience with bilingual pro-

grams that some of the school personnel have atti-

tudes which are detrimental to the implementation

of bilingual programs. This attitude is quite of-

ten evident in regard to any kind of change from

the current practice or from tradition. Sociolo-

gists point to the fact that there are different

types of communities and different types of school

systems. For our purpose we might well classify

them according to the extent to which they seek

and implement change. There are some school systems

that are identified as "early innovators." These

are the schools that very quickly see the possibi-

lity in different types of activities for improving

the educational program. There are other school

systems that are referred to as "late-adopters,"

which never make changes unless the changes have

become established practice elsewhere.

It is not only the schools that tend to change

slowly, but there appears to be reluctance, on the

part of other established community agents and the

people within a given community, to move into a

bilingual education program. Why? Tradition? Fear?

Misunderstanding? While the attitude and the view-

point of many business and educational personnel

are changing this may not be related to the communi-

ty population. It is not unusual for parents whohave gone through the educational system in past

years and who have themselves experienced failurein school and in life because of their inability

to speak English to be reluctant to accept a bi-

lingual education program. They have also beentold for many years that one of the reasons they

do not achieve a social and economic upward mobili-ty is that they have never been able to thoroughly

master the Englih language.

70

Educators have insisted that the speaking ofSpanish interferes with the acquisition of a secondlanguage, namely English. Now, early innovatorsare looking at research findings and are convincedthat this concept is erroneous,

Obviously Mexican-American parents do not wantfor their children the types of social and economicproblems that they have been experiencing. The schoolmay change the attitude of the parents, especiallysince the schools have had a history of emphaticallystressing "English only". Evidence must be availableand communicated to the parents that teaching Spanishis worthwhile and that incorporated into a bilingualeducation program it is also a very strong approachto the teaching of English as a second language.

LET US GO ON RECORD

The group participants identified the barriersthat they felt exist in the community which tend tomake the implementation of bilingual education pro-grams difficult, if not impossible. The lack ofgood communication might well be the real barrier.Concern was expressed that the recommendations madeat such a conference merely would be filed at theconference headquarters or in the United StatesOffice of Education. The participants go on recordand stand behind the recommendations that follow:

RECOMMENDATIONS

The recommendations which have been groupedunder three major headings are not listed in orderof importance and, for emphasis, may be overlappingin concept and contest.

Area I: COMMUNICATION

1. Leaders in a given community should arrangemeetings with members of the local schoolboard to obtain their interest, understan1ing,

71

sanction, and approval of Bilingual Education.They must seek the necessary financial supportand a commitment to implement such educationalprograms.

2. School district personnel should establish acommunication system between school and homeusing the language of the community.

3. Organize a statewide information "giving"program on the need, importance and feasi-bility of Bilingual education programs.

4. A "journal" on bilingual education should beestablished as a communication system whichwould serve as a link between the people andorganizations.

5. The proceedings and recommendations made atthis conference short N be written in Spanishand English and that this information be sentto the following organizations:

Association of School Board MembersTexas Education AgencyState Board of EducationThe State Advisory Board on Bilingual Ed.College and University PersonnelSuperintendents of SchoolsEducation Service CentersProfessional Organizations:

Elementary PrincipalsSecondary PrincipalsAdministratorsClassroom Teachers AssociationNational Education AssociationTexas State Teachers Association

United States Office of EducationState and Local Parent-Teacher AssociationsCity Government OfficialsConference Participants

It was further recommended that the results beused via Television, radio, and the news media toattempt to inform the general public.

72

1

COMMENTS:The discussion which lead to the recommendation

just stated pointed out the difficulty of parents

actually having the opportunity to discuss matters

with the school boards. It was stated that too

often the school administration stopped such a

procedure. It was also pointed out that thesecommunity leaders should secure the aid of analready established organization in presentinginformation to the local school board members.

Discussion clearly indicated that the majormeans of communication between the home and theschool was the "grade card" and that this toldlittle as far as a parent is concerned. It wasalso pointed out that a very small number of par-ents attended and participated in Parent-Teacher

Association meetings. This was largely due to the

language used.

One way to inform the public is through anewspaper, magazine, or newsletter. Total supportand understanding of bilingual education is vital

C to the success of the total program.

nArea II; EDUCATION

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6. Administrators, supervisory personnel, andteachers should become more knowledgeablein the area of Bilingual Education. They

should assume the responsibility to supportthe program, inform the community, and aidin the implementation of such programs. Itwas clearly pointed out that one of the

main barriers is the lack of knowledge onthe part of the professional staff regard-ing bilingual education. In-Service edu-cation must be provided and college teachertraining improved to assure success in bi-lingual programs.

73

7. School district personnel should involve

parents in their total school planning.

Members of the group expressed the need for

parents to be involved in the school program

planning for better understanding by parents

and professional personnel. It was made

clear that they did not expect to "run" the

schools nor to make curriculum decisions,

They wanted to be aware of needs and have

the opportunity to express their desires.

8 Emphasis must be placed upon the need for

Teacher Education programs to prepare teach-

ers for bilingual education programs.' The

need for bilingual teachers was brought to

the attention of the group. The need for

special programs was identified and it sug-

gested that the United States Office of Edu-

cation relate more closely to the Institu-

tions of Higher learning--long range programs

should be established through Federal funds.

Area III: IMPLEMENTATION

9. School district policies must be changed to

reflect the change in attitude toward bilin-

gual education.School policies often reflect the demand that

only English be used on the school grounds

and in the classrooms. In some cases policies

demand punishment for the speaking of Spanish.

10, Parents must be encouraged to participate

in political affairs within the community.

It was pointed out that the number of quali-

fied voters participating in the election

of school board members, bond elections,

etc., was significantly low. Intelligentparticipation must be brought about through

such civic organizations as might be found

within a community. Participating parentspointed out that they did not know how to

go about becoming informed or how to bring

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about action and change within their owncommunity. They were particularly inter-ested in how to work within the schoolstructure.

11. Civic organizations should become in-volved in the needs of the people asregards education.

12, The professional educator must beginbringing the needs of the people in re-gard to bilingual education to theirrespective professional organizations.

L3. School district officials should he en-couraged to hire Mexican-American peopleto explain school policies to the Spanish.speaking population.

14. The administration must be more carefulin the hiring and in the placing ofteachers in classrooms with bilingualchildren. Brought to the attention ofthe group was the necessity of placingteachers with the right attitude withthe bilingual child. Too often he wasridiculed, pressured, or just treatedindifferently by the teacher who didnot understand him. Where there areteachers who are fluent in both languageswe should provide an aide.

15. Professional, civic, and other organiza-tions must go on record favoring andapproving bilingual education.

16. Teacher aides should become an integralpart of the staff to strengthen thelingual instructional program.

17. A Handbook for organizing parent groupsfor community action programs was recom"mended to better enable them to becomemore effective participants.

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Involving Mexican-American Professionals and BarrioRepresentatives in Program Design and Implementation:

The Need for Responsiveness at the Local Level

by

Mx. GU Mutitto

ConsultantMexican-American Unity Council

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RECOMMENDATIONS GROUP FIVE

1. A commitment was made by the San AntonioIndependent School District administratorsto setup future meetings by San Antoniomembers of group five and themselves.

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Inter-Valley administrators from the Pharr-San Juan District and the VISTA supervisorscommitted themselves to communicate with eachother. This would be for the purpose of in-forming school administrators to visit barriogroups and solicit suggestions from themabout implementing bilingual-bicultural edu-cation programs.

A school official from the Edgewood Districtand a SANYO group from that district commit-ted themselves to communicate with each otherfor the purpose of supporting and interpretingto the barrio goals of bilingual-biculturaleducation.

4. There is a need for viable barrio groups sup-porting and interpreting goals of bilingual-bicultural education. Therefore, the schooldistricts should commit themselves to developthis objective by

a) assigning school teachers to do thiskind of organizing

b) assign paraprofessionals to do thisc) to work with existing barrio organizations.

Implied in the above are many complex problemsof organizing ethnic groups who may also be poor.One major problem in the split in the barriosbetween people who bear deep feelings of beirgdealt numerous injustices, and another type ofpeople who believe the difficulty lies in thebarrio people's not taking advantage of existingopportunities.

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To resolve these complex organizing problemsit is suggested that school staff work withknowledgeable barrio people whether they bethe youth, the militants, church people, etc.

5. Local schools should adopt an open door policy.That is, not only should the school administra-tor's door be always open but the schools' play-ground and meeting rooms should be open for theuse of community groups as well. The neighbor-hood people in turn make only reasonable requests,for example, they should not expect to consumeliquor on the school premises or to use theschool for political rallies. Terms of useof the facility should be negotiated betweenschool and neighborhood.

6. There should be an intensive in-service trainingprogram for school staff centering around minor-ity groups. These groups would be structuredto develop positive identification with the goalsof bilingual-bicultural education.

7. School districts and/or local schools and collegesshould have advisory committees made up of barriopeople who are selected by barrio People, thatwould offer suggestions and recommendations toincrease communications between school staff andbarrio. Their advisory board could also serve asa grievance committee and mediate complaints bybarrio parents about school staff.

8. Mexican-Americans should be allowed every con-ceivable opportunity to go to college and becomeschool teachers. This requires an expansion ofexisting programs such as Project Teacher Excel-lence, and the creation of new programs.

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Most of the discussion on the question ofbarrio participation, which took place at theSan Antonio Conference on Bilingual Education,rarely focused on the central issues. Insteadthe two sessions, lasting a total of four hours,were filled with parallel conversations thatillustrated the inadequate communication betreenthe schools and Mexican-American parents:

---A school administrator spoke of the dulyconstituted nature of his school board, remind-ing the rest of the group that he was but aservant of the Board's policies. Should thecitizenry be dissatisfied with the Board's de-cisions, he further pointed out, then it isup to the citizenry to elect others who willmore ably represent their interests.

---An articulate neighborhood resident explainedshe really didn't know what this talk of "barrio"(a Mexican-American neighborhood) was all about;anyway it wasn't real important to her and herfamily. Warming up to her position, she went onto ably defend the idea that "learning to Speakand write Spanish isn't that important for ourkids, they'll have to speak good English to getgood jobs." As far as the talk about partici-pation by parents in the District schools;"There are. PTA groups, you know: she concluded.

---Another Mexican-American woman spoke in fal-tering English. She discussed her nagging wor-ries about where to get the dimes, quarters anddollars that her children demanded for tablets,lunches and gym shorts) She told of her own ex-perience in school, of how bad it felt to bepoor, the way the teachers looked down theirnoses at her, and finally about how she leftschool at 15 to get married.

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--A young man representing a militant Mexican-American organization spoke in ways that excitedand interested most barrio representatives. Hetalked about "dead wood" teachers on the WestSide who are either too old or too inexperiencedto teach at Anglo schools. He pointed out thateven though 58.2% of the school population inthe SAISD are Mexican-American only 10% of theteachers have Spanish surnames, a mere handfulof whom have supervisory or administrative jobs.Throughout the discussion his angry voice under-lined his basic point: The school system is amiserable failure in its efforts to educate theMexican-American. A jolting encounter, thathinted at the central issues, occurred when a

school administrator accepted the militant'scriticism and then went on to point out waysand programs that would get at the problems.The militant responded: "Why has it taken thedistrict fifty years to get serious about theproblem? Do you realize the waste and suffer-ing that you have caused."

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The ambivalence that the discussion group hadtowards the idea of barrio participation and bilin-gual education seemed to reflect the conflictingnature of underlying problems. Frankly stated,bilingual education threatens the identificationwith the dominant group that some socially mobileMeixcan-Americans maintain. This group of Mexican-American pupils and parents have a deep commitment 1

to Anglo middle class values and goals. To askthem to shed this by reidentifying with Spanishand their Mexican heritage is asking, in manycases, too much. In the barrio, even though thisaspiring group is small (they are called "agrinda-dos"), they are very articulate and close to localschool officials. These mobility oriented Mexi-ican-Americans are supported by many professionalswho strongly believe that being "true American"and advocating a foreign language are incompati-ble. These are the ones who seem to accept theidea of barrio participation intellectually,while

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immediately qualifying participation with appro-priately and the right for all to share in de-cision making with "but there are exceptions."These same professionals dimly, if not expli-citly, realize that to accept the concept ofbilingual education for their Mexican-Americanstudents is to admit grave failure on theirpart over many years through the use of tradi-

tional materials and methods and an implicit"melting pot" philosophy. Finally, the feelings

expressed by barrio people were feelings ofhurt, resentment, and distrust towards the schooland its staff. When a neighborhood school isnot an island isolated from the barrio, we weretold, it is because of demonstrated serviceand sensitivity of its principal and staff toneighborhood people and their concerns.

The Issues

In the light of these unresolved conflictsthe issue of bilingual education and barrioparticipation seems to be this; How does theestablished educational leadership direct andencourage citizen involvement which ultimatelywill direct itself against that same sponsor-ing leadership and/or its outmoded curriculumand programs? Or, looking at it from anotherview: How, and by whom, can the barrios beorganized, supported, and strengthened to acton their own behalf in the matter of qualityeducation and not become an instrument of theschool system?

At the very outset it should be under-stood that complete and full commitment tobilingual education attains many basic goalsof the present Mexican-American social move-ment which began as a nationalistic responseto Anglo domination and exploitation. "La

Raza Unida" movement is directed toward socialjustice and social power for Mexican-Americans,based on cultural diversity. It is a dynamicthrust aiming less at defending the rights of

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Mexican-Americans than at establishing the rightfor all Mexican-Americans to take an active partas Mexican-Americans in determining and implemen-ting accelerated social change in the Southwest.

The logic that bilingual education could wellbe a partner to the movement rests on the factthat bilingual-bicultural pilot projects havedemonstrated marked successes among the Mexican-American youth. If the bilingual curriculum iscontinued and expanded, the educational achieve-ment level of the Mexican-American (now at the6th grade level) will be pushed higher and high-er. Should this occur, then as surely as groupheight is directly related to group weight, high-er educational achievement among Mexican-Americanswill result in higher economic levels, more skilledoccupational positions, higher membership ratesin unions and other self interest voluntary associ-ations, greater political activity in voting andrunning for office, etc. In brief, as the qualityand quantity of the Mexican-American educationincreases, so will the group's political andeconomic power become a force to be reckoned with.Institutional representatives in the Southwestwith a tremendously large and growing Mexican-American student population face an awesome dilem-ma: Keep the Mexican-American at his primitivelevel* and thus waste his potential contributionto civic participation and to a work force charac-terized by a widespread shortage of both profes-sional and skilled occupational positions, or aidand abet his efforts to achieve equality andfreedom through full participation in our educa-tional institutions, realizing that active parti-cipation in the educational process ultimatelymeans sharing the power to make policy and admin-istrative decisions for either the allocation orthe reorganization of educational resources. Theacceptance of the latter alternative implies awillingness by educators to tolerate the kinds oftensions and social disharmony that accompany the

*Average income $3500, average educational level6.3 vs. the respective national levels of 11.2and $7500.

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actual sharing or seizing of power in any social

structure or society, and the need for specific

planning and programs to minimize the intergroup

conflict between Mexican-American activists and

institutional representatives.

What I am addressing myself to is the no-

tion that many Mexican-Americans now recognizethat their group is caught in the cycle of po-

verty. For many years the leaders of the grouphave voiced the notion that education is the

answer. But now after decades of trial anderror, and after learning the lessons of thecivil rights revolution of the sixties, theMexican-American is finally coming to gripswith his most significant problem: his need todevelop social power.

Some have learned that the price of risingout of poverty through academic achievement is

to become overly conforming and trapped by ourmerchant's culture. For this kind of Mexican-American the cost is loss of identity. He be-

comes a wandering marginal man, never fully ac-

cepted by the dominant Anglo group, half rejectedby his own group. Fortunately, the trend today

is for the "college boy" Mexican to use his

talents and leadership skills in behalf of the

barrios.

It is this type of Mexican-American who istalking about Brown Power. And at this point,because of the nature oftthe barrio, there isan enthusiastic and growing support of the notionof "barrio control" as an important lever ofBrown Power. Barrio control rests on the make-up

of many barrios throughout the Southwest. These

neighborhoods are identifiable areas that havehoused the same families for many years. Withinthese neighborhoods are numerous interdependentextended families and friendship networks. Eventhough there are running fueds among some of thekinship groups, organizers find that the combina-tion of past loyalties and a common danger quick-ly serves to unite the neighborhood.

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11Mexican-American organizers have seized upon thisknowledge and have come to realize how potent a

force it is. What it seems to capitalize on isthe strong mutual aid system of the barrios that

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is ever at work in the face of unbelievable survial

problems. The emerging idea of barrio control- I

is that the neighborhood has common grievances thatcan be resolved only by making local institutions

accountable to them, the people whom the institu-tional representatives are supposed to serve.Power thus is translated into havin& control overdecisions that directly affect the neighborhood.In San Antonio it is the shadow of Model Citiesthat is popularizing the concept of barrio controlElsewhere in the Southwest the Mexican-American is Jin the process of sorting out the various levelsand kinds of social power that will make the Angloleadership respond. Convinced that if they havepower all the rest of what they need will follow,

the Mexican-American group is in the midst ofIdeciding what particular kind is most suited for [A

them. At this point, a good guess is that itwill take two forms. The older Mexican-American -I

will choose the goal of economic power in theform of economic co-operatives, while the barrioyouth will choose direct social action techniques.Needless to say these direct social action techniqtL s

could easily be turned into physical violence andriots. It should be added we have already experieT eminor but serious disorders here in San Antonio th :jyear (1969) during Fiesta Week, That outburst ofMexican and Negro youth on downtown San Antoniostreets put quite a damper on Fiesta Week activiti .

Denver and Los Angeles are other explosive Southwestcities.

It seems obvious that any outside help such asbilingual education planning must take "La RazaUnida" movement into account. The movement'spriorities, goals, and methods can be summarizedthis way: The power to achieve social change and !

justice must come upwards from the barrios.

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Power is the control over decision, and socialchange is the continuous process of redistributingpower within social systems. Related to theMexican-American social movement, the value andgoal of bilingual education becomes one (and onlyone) means of quality education. Quality educationin turn is a lever for more equitable distributionof social power.

Some Solutions

Once we accept the meaning of the movementand its emphasis on controlling decisions, itbecomes easier to sort out various levels ofdecision-making. It also becomes possible tomake recommendations for barrio participation.The specific proposals and recommendations whichfollow are intimately related to the movement'svalues and goals. They also flow from the rec-commendations of the group discussants.

Here are two ways in which barrio residentscould become involved in bilingual-biculturaleducation while minimizing the disruptive conse-quences of institutional change.

1. As Employees. Through the 1964 anti-poverty legislation, a new trend was intiatedin contrast to previous policies of servicesprovided by workers from the upper middle class,highly mobile, better-educated segment of socie-ty. Beginning in 1964 people from the low in-come groups have been recruited and trained, andare now employees of various public and privateagencies such as the community action agency,school districts, and welfare offices. As em-ployees of school districts, barrio residentswould come to understand, appreciate and supportthe goals of bilingual education. This would bedone first in the classroom and then in the sur-rounding neighborhood. To establish these jobsvarious vital components must be welded together

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to avoid the pitfalls commonly experienced in NewCareers programs within the field of education.Essentially this means the barrio person must beprovided with an entry position that he can mas-ter immediately. These entry positions must becomplete with training programs so that the trai-nee may advance to a level of greater responsibi-lity and a higher salary rate. Funds are avail-able to school systems through 0E0, MDTA, Title Iof ESEA, the Nelson-Scheuer amendment to thePoverty Act, and the Javits-Kennedy Act for Im-pacted Areas, all of which provide Federal fundsfor the employment of low income persons who lackthe traditional certification for education. How-ever, either because of limited funding or becauseof lack of faith in the concept of New Careers,very few school districts in this area have devel-oped New Careers slots.

The second type of barrio candidate that couldbe recruited into the school district would bethose low income Mexican-Americans who have highlyidentified with the goals of education and whohave the capacity to become professional teachers.A danger here is that often these individuals gaintneir middle class values at a heavy price, namely,by rejecting their own Mexican heritage and byindiscriminate acceptance of an "Americanized"identification. At the other extreme are thosewho see bilingual education as the panacea forresolving all of the Mexican-American's inequali-ties. The most immediate and practicial way torecruit barrio youth is by expanding the so-called"GI Bill" to include sons and daughters of veterans.In effect this could provide Mexican-American youthwith public education through the college level.Those choosing to specialize in the field of educa-tion would be given special incentives. It shouldalso be added that there is a shortage of some 8,000bilingual teachers presently (1969) in Texas schoolsystems.

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2. As members of advisor rou s and olic deci-

sion making boards -- neighborhood people shouldbe selected to serve on advisory groups and policydecision making boards responsible for the imple-menting and evaluating of the bilingual-bicultu-ral curriculum. The particular mechanisms fardetermining the type of boards, the area to whichthey are responsible, and many other questions,must be decided on by the central authority. How-ever, the following principles should be maintained:

a. Local boards should be elected by parentsand school staff from among their ownmembers. Barrio people must form themajority of the board.

b. Training courses in bilingual-biculturtlmethods and administration should be es-tablished for newly elected local boardmembers.

c. A system of compensation should be set-upso board members could take time off asneeded from their regular jobs, hire bal,ysitters, or arrange transportation.

d. Technical consultants in bilingual--Acul-tural education, such as psychologi3ts,linguists, or administrative experts,should be provided by the central educa-tional authority.

e. A local board must work toward an eval-uation system in order to determine howtheir decisions, good or bad, are work-ing out in practice.

f. Finally, from the very beginning the powerof the board should be carefully andclearly specified and limited. No groupshould be deluded into believing that ithas unlimited authority; however, the lo-cal board must know what procedure maybe followed if they have important grie-vances.

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A Final Recommendation

The third and final recommendation was only

hinted at by the group discussants. Neverthe-

less it involves another fact of social reality

that must be taken into account. This reality

revolves around the existance of- viable militant

and independent barrio groups who see school

staff and school districts as an enemy to be

eliminated. To these militants, the crucialissue is the quality of public institutionsand their relevance to local needs. The cost

of winning over these groups is high, but oncethey identify with the goals of bilingual educa-tion their influence in breaking down barriobarriers is tremendous. For that reason organi-zations, independent from school systems, shouldbe given training grants to support and providetechnical assistance to these groups. The stra-

tegy here is to begin negotiating around commongoals and interests between local schools and lo-cal pressure groups who have never really communi-cated and who, up to now, have no desire to do so.Until this begins, there can be little hope for

reconciliation between the contending forces.

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Approaches to the Education ofMexican-American Target Populations:Alternatives to Bilingual Teaching

by

Mt. Lee. Venzot

DirectorParent Involvement Program

Good Samaritan Center

The Home

A basic cause for the Mexican-American failurein school is in great part a lack of a proper ori-entation of the parents toward school. This in-volves their potential contribution to the educa-tional process in supportive, auxiliary and coop-erative roles. The parents of minority grouphomes fail to assume these roles in the educationaldevelopment of their children for many reasons.Some of these can be summarized to be (1) theirown lack of an education which causes them to bene-fit from the learning opportunities at school;(2) their insufficient language, may it be English.or Spanish, which prevents them from communicatingwith school officials and teachers; (3) theirinadequate motivation, which is heavily oversha-dowed by financial and nutritional considerations;and (4) their poor self-image caused by a tradi-tion of stoop labor, second class citizenship,lack of education, insecurity or shame about thelanguage they speak (Spanish)and frustration a-bout the language that they don't speak(English).These are but a few of the many reasons whyMexican-American children of low socioeconomicfamilies fail to achieve in school and eventuallydropout at some point in their educational cycle.

An immediate concern should be the creationof a more fulfillment of the role of the parentin the educational process. A parental involve-ment program component must seek to fill thestimulation vacuum to which the Mexican-Americanchildren are subjected during the first fewyears of their lives. The parent must be madeaware of their needs, responsibilities and re-sources. Along with this understanding, theymust be assisted in developing the necessary skillswhich are needed to accomplish the desired perfor-mance.

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The research and writing of Benjamin Bloom

(1964), dramatically illustrate the importance

of the home as an early school, and of the par-

ents who are unavoidably the child's teachers.

Bloom reports that half of all intellectual

growth takes place between birth and 4 years

of age, the next 30 percent between 4 and 8

years, and only 20 percent between 8 and 17

years. Consequently, for Bloom, an "old dog"

is the child at the elementary school, when

approximately 75 percent of his academic po-

tential has been determined. The preschool

and early elementary school years are the cri-

tical years for intellectual stimulation, and

the home, not the school, is the deciding fac-

tor whether a child'I life is really influenced

for better or worse.

Although this may seem to place a mammoth job

on the parents, it does not mean that parents

have to take on the formal tasks of the school,

nor does it mean that disadvantage parents, by

virtue of their own educational handicaps need to

be ineffectual or harmful to their children.

Correcting a few mistaken ideas or eliminating the

ignorance of a few basic principles of development

probably would result in a significant alteration

in parental attitudes and consequently in child

behaviour. A start has to be made somewhere on

which to build a more educated and more involved

parent populations among the disadvantaged.

Elementary schooling

Although bilingual education is now seen as

the most desirable program base for building edu-

cational programs for Mexican-American children,

it cannot be considered a cure-all for the many

problems common to this populatioLt group. Even

in the realm of language there are approaches and

methods which in the absence of a capability for

bilingual education in a given district can be used

to obtain results far superior to those which have

been obtained with traditional approaches, methods,

and techniques.

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The most easily identifiable alternative isprobably the teaching of English as a second lan-guage. This approach capitalizes on the contri-bution of linguistic science and is based generallyon the audio-lingual methodology now in currentuse by teachers of foreign languages. Severalgood programs of ESL are in use throughout thestate and the results obtained would certainlycommend this approach especially in school situ-ations where bilingual expertise is not readilyavailable.

But notwithstanding its successes ESL mustbe considered second best for teaching Englishto native Spanish-speakers. The absence of themother tongue for instruction may still be con-sidered by the child as a value judgement of hislanguage and culture and thus continue the feel-ing of cultural insecurity which has often plagueddisadvantaged Mexican-American children. Not onlythat but it also goes counter to the findings ofrecent research which points to the advantage ofusing the native language for instruction whilea second language is being taught.

If the culture and history of the studentis also to be taught this can be done much moreeasily when the same language of that cultureand history is used for that purpose.

Also in the area- of language it is impor-tant to promote the teaching of language thruthe use of academic content areas. It is nowrecognized that the process of language learningis facilitated when meaningful content is beingcommunicated. Also appropriate as content basesare 1) perceptual and conceptual development ma-terials, 2) materials which reflect the worth ofthe individual and his heritage, 3) historicaland cultural materials which present the contri-butions of the Spanish, Mexican and Indian ances-try of present-day Mexican-Americans.

Another area which demands prompt attentionis the development, adaptation and dissemination

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of measuring instruments for use with non-nativespeakers of English. Intelligence tests particu-larly have been proven inadequate and dangeroussince they are often used for labeling studentsas slow learners when in reality it is problemsof language which hinder their academic growthand development. So serious is the case againstI.Q. tests, particularly in the primary grades,that the city of New York has now abolished theiruse in the early grades and California is apparent-ly moving in the same direction.

It would certainly seem appropriate for Texasschools to at least investigate the effects thatindiscriminate use of I.Q. scores has had on theeducation of Mexican-Americans and to move towardsremediaLion of this problem.

The same type of investigation should also bemade of achievement, aptitude, and performancetests to check for relevancy of cultural, histori-cal and linguistic content.

New tests must also be developed which aredesigned for this particular group oi childrenwith their own strengths and weaknesses in mindrather than morning after an abstract sample ofmiddle-class, English speaking children.

Also in the elementary grades the tyrannyof the textbooks over teachers must be ended.Teachers should be encouraged to see and use text-books only as tools for teachers, i.e., means toan end, rather than allowing them to set the paceof education and being the sole determiners ofa child's progress through school.

Readers especially must be used within theperspective of a total language development pro-gram. Oral language experiences must precede aformal introduction to reading and both the oraland written language should be structured aroundmeaningful experiences that are relevant to thechild's environment and experience.

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secondffy schooling

The percentage of Mexican-American youngsterswho attend college is embarrassingly small andthe percentage of high school graduates who pos-sess salable skills is also below the national.average.

It has been estimated that 80% of all Mexi-can- American children who enter the first gradedo not finish high school. This appalling sta-tistic does not speak highly about the capabi-lities of our schools to provide an adequateeducational opportunity to children of Spanish-speaking homes.

Traditionally many school systems have as-signed Mexican-American youngsters to vocationalcourses of study which aside from preventing stu-dents from participating in college preparatoryprograms are woefully inadequate in that theyemphasize trades and vocations which are rapidlybecoming obsolete or are becoming mechanized orautomated. For a number of reasons - few ofwhich are valid - this had been a characteristicin the educational pattern for young Mexican-Americans.

The advanced technology and rapidly evolvingpatterns of employment in the second half ofthe twentieth century call for vocational andsemi- professional programs which are vastly dif-ferent from those of the 1940's. Computers, elec-tronic, science, rapid transportation, and ad-vanced business systems demand specializedtraining which in most cases is now being pro-vided by training on the job because it is notbeing made available in secondary schools.

The number of educator-personnel in thefields of guidance and counseling must be sig-nificantly increased if all areas of opportunityfor Mexican-Americans are to be opened. Thereis an urgent need also to involve increased num-bers of Mexican-Americans in programs of training

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for these fields. Not only is there criticalneed for success models of the same ethnicbackground which other young people can imi-tate but the understanding and empathy whichis required for guidance workers is closelylinked also with the degree to which they canassociate themselves with their clients. For

this reason programs for the training of Mex-ican-American guidance personnel should beencouraged and supported.

The implementation of bilingual educationprograms is but one step towards the provisionof quality education for Mexican-Americans. Lan-guage programs alone cannot be expected to providethe kind of preparation for life which educationmust accomplish. Increased emphasis must be givento other areas if this segment of our populationis to move out of the dark decades to which it hasbeen relegated in the American southwest.

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RECOMMENDATIONS GROUP SIX

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1. English as a second language - methods shouldbe used not only in language arts classes but

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also in content areas.

2. Teachers should be retrained to use textbooksas a means to an end but ncc as an end inthemselves or to adapt them to the needs ofthe children.

II3. Emphasize the teaching of concepts that re-flect the worth of each individual and hisculture all over the world, ie., We are morealike than different.

4. Involve parents in the school and teachin the homes;a) release teacher (during school time)

visit homes.b) train teacher to visit and to accept

customs they encounter.c) coordinate the objectives of the two

teaching institutions, the home and theschool.

d) help the parents feel that school is im-portant to the child and the school issincerely dedicated to the best care ofthe child.

e) use parental involvement personnel andinvolve parents in group meetings, fieldtrips, advisory boards, school visitations,etc.

ers

to

5. Help develop a child's pride - help him toaccept himself (as part of society). Helpthe child know he is a person of worth.

6. Design a program that emphasizes human be-havior and living.

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7. Get personnel directors to hire undergraduatestudents to come to the schools and motivatestudents to remain in school so that laterthey may be able to compete for higher pay-ing jobs.

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Bring former students to the school to helpmotivate others to stay in school.

9. Develop a (guidance) program design to getstudents into colleges and/or junior col-leges scholarships, adequate guidance.

10. Put pressure on the community to raise pro-fessional salaries.

11. Raise standards of vocational training sograduates will be able to cope with the jetage, that is to say, so that the trainingthe student gets in high school will pre-pare him to fit into the economy (job)of our society.

t..12. Develop new instruments for testing

Mexican-American children.

13. Abolish testing (I.Q.) in primary grades.

14. Raise the standards of curriculum in highschools.

15. Curriculum in the elementary schools andhigh schools should include the teachingof Mexican-American culture.

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Changing the StA Common

DeveloUtilization of Me

ructure from Within and Without:Sense Approach to thement and Effectiveican-American Professionals

by

Enna t M. eknat, Jk.

Assistant ProfessorSt. Mary's Uni

of Educationersity

During the Las Cruces Conference not longago a group of Chicano educators was having aninformal, pre-dinner caucus in a motel roomwhen an Anglo passerby recognized several ofthe individuals and came in to say hello. Afterthe usual pleasantries he commented that he wasexpanding one of his bilingual program components.Asked if a Mexican-American were going to headup the new effort he replied no, that he hadlooked for one qualified but couldn't find one.What were the qualifications? An Ed.D. and

"experience." The pay--$13,000 a year. AnAnglo Ph.D. was hired; a Mexican-Americandoctoral candidate was named as his assistant

at $9,000.

In another instance, a few central adminis-trative positions were created last year by alarge school district in south-central Texas andwere filled by promoting some Spanish-surnamedprincipals. The Mexican-American community lead-ers were dismayed to learn their names, however,for they knew these new administrators to behighly acculturated to the Anglo ethic.

Similarly, a college admissions officerwould not "lower standards" by admitting Mexi-can-American applicants who did not quite havethe minimally acceptable GPA and who barelymissed the "necessary" scores on a collegeadmissions test, despite the fact that theirwork record and student leadership activitiesshow them to have promise. "I treat everyonethe same," he claims. "If that makes me abigot, then I'm at least impartial about it."

What do all these stories have in common?Mexican-Americans regard each of these as instancesof systematid_ discrimination, though erstwhile"Mexican-Americans" and some Anglos would say

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that these measures are necessary to keep dis-crimination from working in reverse. To the Chi-cano mind, any publicly funded institution whichclaims to have searched in vain for fully quali-fied and experienced Mexican-Americans is simplyemploying a 21.112s2* rouse, an excuse to hire orpromote Anglos. Organizations which undertakeprograms to benefit Mexican-Americans shouldthemselves be willing to groom capable youngChicanos with a view to having them eventuallyassume executive positions. To do otherwise isto impose a functional ceiling on the upward mo-bility of the Chicano professional.

The Chicano is also very concerned about"Brown jobs", positions which are filled by "safe"Mexican-Americans, not because he denies theseindividuals the right to become anglicized, butbecause of the implicit fraud involved in thatthese personnel stensibly represent the minority'sviewpoints. Again, the rigid system of collegeselection procedures, the validity of which wasestablished on the performance of predominantlyAnglo students, serves only to exclude Mexican-American youth and especially young adults (forexample, those returning from a 4 year enlist-ment in the armed forces and planning to use G,I.Bill benefits) from the better educational insti-tutions. This discrimination, then, is subtleand in many cases unwitting; Though the poten-tial position of the Mexican-American is highernow, it seems that he still has "his place"!

If, then, the educational structure is tohave the opportunity to modify itself, at least

* A gringo is one who is unsympathetic to theplight of minorities, be he Spanish-surnamedor Anglo.

three conditions must be realized: (1) Theremust be a greater number of formally qualifiedMexican-Americans to fill positions within thesystems (2) the schools must be altered to pro-vide a wider spectrum of community services,(3) the Establishment must have to deal direct-ly with Mexican-American interest groups, and(4) Mexican-Americans must participate in thedecisions to fund or reject proposals.

First, special scholarship monies must beset aside for Mexican-American students, es-pecially at the graduate level. A shockinglylow number of Mexican-American high school grad-uates enter college. Of these, many dropoutbecause of the financial press on themselves ortheir families--a condition which could be alle-viated if student financial aid officers wouldwork up full suppor.c packages for these students.Furthermore, too great proportions of thoseMexican-Americans who have come from the barriosand struggled for an education either disavowLa Raza or do not continue beyond the bachelor'sdegree. Those who preserve Brown souls in theirbrown skins quickly dedicate themselves to help-ing others or feel obligated Lo assist theiryounger siblings thru school. By the time somewould feel free to return to school, they havemarried and are raising families of their own.A teacher's savings (if any) and a small fellow-ship will not suffice to support many of thesepotential leaders thru a master's or doctoralprogram. Others, recognizing that the tradition-ally defined professional rites of passage areincompatible with a high degree of familism anda barrio style of life, sever most or all tieswith their families of orientation. Since thefamily is such a strong institution within Mexi-can-American society, the cultural heritage ofthese individuals suffers also. In order, then,to meet the need for highly trained Mexican-Americafeducational specialists who are also committedto La Causa, fellowships sufficient to support

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a family must be provided.

Secondly, the entire school must become ori-ented toward community service. The profesnionalstaff, especially the counselors, administrators,and teachers have to learn to accept parents andstudents alike, to put their institution and ta-lents to work in the neighborhood. With thecooperation of state accreditation agencies,teacher training and counselor preparation rro-grams could be modified to develop culture-spe-cific interpersonal and group techniques, and agreater emphasis on practical applications toreal situations may help the trainees developthe skills to effect social change thru targetarea schools. For many colleges of educationor summer workshops to hire the extra personnelneeded to design these specialized courses andprovide close practicum supervision, however,versatile federal funding may be necessary.

Third, no proposal dealing with the educa-tion of Mexican-Americans should be funded un-less Chicanos have been involved in the projectfrom its inception. More specifically, Chicanosshould have an input into the planning programand evaluation phases of every project. Theymust be well represented on the project staff,and wherever possible a Mexican-American advi-sory group composed of recipients of the servicesspecified in the funding contract must be orga-nized. If Mexican-Americans are not hired tofill executive positions in protracted, multifacetedprojects such as those undertaken be regionaleducational laboratories or state education agen-cies, the grantee must devise and implement plansfor training and promoting those initially em-ployed at the intermediate levels.

Finally, U.S.O.E. should ensure that itsconcerns for the educational well-being of theMexican-American are not being pandered to by

self-seeking gringo groups. Although it is 0_f-

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ficult for every corporate body interested indeveloping some aspect of the education of bi-linguals to call together a cross-section of lo-cal Chicanos to review its plans, the effortmust be made. Better yet, U.S.O.E. may considerfunding local, state or regional committeesof Chicanos to critique initial proposal inquiriesand consult with the sponsoring organizations.Such a team must demonstrate representativenessand might include the state's members of theNational Advisory to the Mexican-American AffairsUnit. The rationale for my remarks is that sucha group could have a more accurate purview ofthe educational needs in the area. Its raisond'etre would be to make programs relevant.

Washington would, of course, retain theright to adjudge grant awards. But here, too,those who call constantly for innovation canpoint the way be getting Mexican-American readersfor proposals having to do with Mexican-Americaninterests.

Nor can we overlook the possibility offunding proposals submitted by organizationsindependent or semi-independent of extant edu-cational structures. Consortia among institu-tions, individual professionals, and the commu-nity to meet behaviorally specifiable needs seemparticularly attractive, because they may provideservices which transcend the capabilities of any-one, necessarily more generalized component.Planning for certain kinds of adult educationor of community organization for service to theschools, for instance, may be more efficientlyhandled thru interinstitutional cooperation.

What has been recommended here has heavypolitical implications. In the last analysis,however, no peaceful social revolution, whetherin the community or tha schools, can proceed anyfaster than what the Establishment will sanction,

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allow or, at best, tolerate, The San AntonioConference was held to find the real speed limitson the various avenues to such a revolution, toplan more direct routes and estimate what thecost of building new thruways might be--as wellas the consequences of letting the traffic runamok.

At the close of the San Antonio Conference,a group of Mexican-American and inglo conferees,under the leadership of Mr. Nick Garza, formed asteering committee for what is as yet an unstrutured group of concerned educators, Texas fo theEducational Advancement of Mexican-American(TEAM). It is hoped that purposes and objectivescan be formulated by the end of the summer sothat this group may begin taking definite actionin the interest of Mexican-American education bythe fall school term, 1969-70,

Today the Mexican-American does not eschewpolitics and is not afraid of power, whether hisown or that of others. His loyalty to Americais not tergiversant, but he does not want thisconstancy to be taken for granted or his docilityrequired in the face of exploitation and degrada-tion. He does not, in short, desire to be assi-milated into the Anglo community unless his bar-gaining position is that of an equal. Though hehas much to learn from his Anglo brothers, hefeels that they can also learn much from him.

To effect such change the Mexican-Americanmust first be recognized as being different andperceived as powerful enough to command respect.He is learning to blow his own horn, individuallyand in concert with others. Since public and pri-vate monies are being spent in his name, as itwere, to pay the piper, he should call a few of

The chairman of the steering committees is Mr.Ray Sanchez, 1302 Guadalupe, San Antonio, Texas 78207

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tunes. The recommendations growing out of theSan Antonio Conference will allow one to pre-dict what some of these songs will be, and ifone's band is to play them well, a Mexican-American brass section may have to be employed,not tc mention a few fiddlers and a differentdrummer. Once Chicanos are given the chanceto write some of the orchestration, the twocultural groups may produce some fascinating newharmonies.

Such arrangements are far superior to thediscord of hiring two different bands to playdifferent music at the same time in the sameplace.

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Mexican Americans and Staffing for Bilingual

Education

by

Josu,M, Gonzalez

L

It would be less than honest and not at allrealistic to treat the problems of staffing for bi-lingual education without making a statement which isat the same time unnecessary and yet pregnant withsignificance. This basic and inescapable fact isthat within this topic, the focus must be largely onthe training, recruitment, assignment, and retentionof one particular group of educators. To some extentthey all possess proficiency in two languages, theyare to some degree bicultural and they happen alsoto belong to a national minority group; that is tosay, they are Mexican Americans.

Also inescapable is the fact that the ever in-creasing activism of the chicanos of today is begin-ning to spill over from civil rights, economic op-portunity and politics into education and its mostsacred bovines; teacher training, tests and measure-ments, and upper echelon administrati-on.

The significance of this is difficult to assessscientifically. For example, not only is bilingualeducation a new idea in this country but it is a newidea which brings with it extensive requirements for"retooling" at all levels of the educational process.And not only is it requiring change but the demandsfor change are coming from a national minority groupwho has for generations held a secondary place inAmerican society and who clings adamantly to a valuesystem, a culture, and a language which are alien to"the American way."

Little wonder, then., that the quest for qualityeducation by Mexican Americans presents to the in-secure, the uninformed, and the bigots, a threat toall that they would consider "sacred" about Americaand its institutions. This is evidenced by the greatnumber of educators and lay people who regretfully(but sincerely), believe that patriotism, and loveand pride of country are monolingual English-speakingattributes.

And if all of this were not enough the mereproposal that a bilingual education program be in-itiated requires a willingness to accept the hardfact that on-going patterns of education for MexicanAmerican children are not meeting with an acceptablemeasure of success. It requires a tacit admission

on the part of teachers, supervisors, administrators,etc. that they have done a less than outstanding job

of educating Spanish-speakers thru the use of tradi-tional materials and methodologies. This of course,

a difficult admission, but if the statistics arecorrect there are some 89% of all Mexican Americanchildren who enter the first grade in Texas who neverfinish high school.1 And if this is true, and a1960 median adult educational achievement level of6.1 years seems to support it, then the battingaverage is indeed poor and sorely in need of at least

a second look.2

Many are now aware of the shortcomings ofthe educational system but many refuse to believethe gravity of the problem and insist on turning adeaf ear to data such as these:

. The average Mexican American childin the Southwest drops out of schoolby the seventh year. In Texas, 89 per-cent of the children with Spanish sur-names drop out before completing highschool!

. Along the Texas-Mexico border, fourout of five Mexican American childrenfall behind their Anglo classmates bythe time they reach the fifth grade.

. A recent study in California showedthat in some schools more than 50percent of Mexican American highschool students drop out betweengrades 10 and 11; one Texas schoolreported a 40 percent dropout ratefor the same grades.

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. Mexican Americans account for more than40 percent of the so-called "mentallyhandicapped" in California.

. Although Spanish surnamed students makeup more than 14 percent of the publicschool population of California, lessthan 1/2 of one percent of the collegestudents enrolled in the seven campusesof the University of California .4 re of

this group.3

In the same report quoted above and afterextensive research and soul searching, the NationalAdvisory Committee on Mexican American Education re-commends as its first priority for action the train-ing of "at least 1000,000 bilingual bicultural teach-ers and educational administrators."

Thus the scope and complexity of staffingfor bilingual education and education in general forMexican Americans is laid out for educators to con-template in concern and awe. But there is littletime for contemplation, and a daring few plunge inwith determination. One small Texas college enrolls30 freshmen in a bilingual teacher training program,then triples the number during the second year, andfinds itself in a position of leadership through itssmall beginning effort.5 On another front severalhundred school districts submit applications forITitle VII ESEA funds in hopes of doing thru inserviceprograms what should have been done in pre-servicetraining. Frantic and eager proponents call forimporting teachers from Spanish American; a poorsubstitute that would place students and teachersin uncomfortable cultural, historical, and linguisticpredicaments. School districts from one state "raid"others in search of bilingual teachers only to findthe same dire shortages wherever they go.

Generally the present and near future pre-sent a less than bright picture for successful staff-

ing of bilingual education programs. The shortageeven of prospects to be trained as bilingual teachers

1 1 2

is serious. It has been estimated that some 250,000children in Texas could benefit from bilingual in-struction at the present time. Yet best estimatesare that there are only some 5,500 teachers 9urrentlyemployed in this state who may be bilingual.° In

addition not all of these are working in areas wherebilingual education is practical or even possible.Only two areas in the state have high enough concen-trations of bilingual teachers to make comprehensiveprograms possible, and even here the number availableis subject to the prevailing patterns of recruitment,assignment and retention. These are in turn depen-dent on the whims of tradition, human nature and sal-ary scales.

The realization comes soon enough that we facea cyclical problem that must be attacked at home, andfrom pre-school through the doctorate in the formaleducational spectrum. If young Mexican Americanscannot get thru high school then they will not evenearn college degrees. And without degrees they can-not become teachers. And even from those few whodo graduate from high school an embarrassi-ngly smallnumber are able to gain college admission since in-adequate preparation and entrance requirements oftenpresent insurmountable barriers.

It becomes clear thus that the development ofMexican Americans for the education professions can-not be limited to the narrow confines of recruitment,development, assignment and retention of bilingualteachers who are for the most part absent from thetotal picture. The eventual success will have todepend on increased emphases at all levels of educa-tion for the Spanish speakers of the Southwest.

And yet the pressures of the present demandthat we begin an intensive process of developmentwith the potential for leadership now present, orsoon to be active, in our schools. But the greatdifferences which presently exist in the philosophyand application of bilingual education programs makeit difficult to prescribe a teacher preparation pro-gram which might be applicable to the needs of all

school districts of the state, since there is a pres-sing need also for all involved in the areasrelevant to staffing to

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assess those criteria which have traditiolally beenused in teacher preparation aid evaluation. Thebroad areas of professional concern commonly embracedby terms like "superior native ability, mastery ofsubject matter, broad general education, an under-standing of human nature, dedication to work,"7 andother such generalitites, do not set the proper para-meters for the kinds of training that teachers ofMexican American children should receive. Greaterspecificity and increased flexibility are in order.At the same time that special training in specificareas is requiredothe need is great for generalistswith working knowledge of many areas of education.Such persons are to be preferred over highly trainedspecialists in one area since such specializationmany times results in an in-bred philosophy of edu-cation that inhibits healthy professional growth.Such for example, is the case currently developingwith proponents of "the linguistic method," or the"cognitive development approach" who are in dangerof prematurely crystallizing their teaching arounda concept which is essentially sound but whichshould comprise only a part of the whole of theteaching-learning process.

Charles Brussell recently synthesized somei* of the prevailing thought regarding the education oft_ young Mexican American children. in the short sec-

tion which he devotes to "The Teacher" he writes:

Goldberg 09) believes that there isno such thing as the universally "good"teacher; rather, there are a varietyof "good" teachers whose temperamentsand training differentially suit themto teach differing groups of students.Disadvantaged children represent adescribable pupil population who arein need of teachers uniquely "good"for them. Since Goldberg feels thatthere is no systematic data on whatteachers of the disadvantaged do, heconstructs a hypothetical model of thesuccessful teacher of the disadvantaged.

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This teacher, according to Goldberg,respects his students, not as a romanticgesture, but because he realisticallysees them as struggling to survive inthe ruthless world of their peers. Heis a sturient, not a judge, of the alienculture from ;,hick the children come.He understands their background, theirvalues, their home life, their familystructures. He will recognize thefunctional quality of the children'slanguage, even if it is not acceptableEnglish. He knows that learning comesnot merely from native ability but alsofrom total experience, and will accepttest scores as valid measures of chil-dren's present academic ability, whilerejecting them as measures of theirnative ability. He is orderly, strict,and undeviating, but also warm and out-going, and never punitive. He is awareof the dangers of the "self-fulfillingprophecy," and expects more of eachchild than the child thinks he canproduce, but does not set standardsso high as to cause frustration. Heis always honest, Ha does not pretendthat a pupil's work is good when it is

not, but he always rewards each tinystep upward with honest praise. He issomething of a showman, breathing in-terest into the student's work, andhe has an extensive knowledge of whathe teaches. Summed up in one phrase,he has the quality of ordered flexi-bility.

In a similar vein, Riessman (49) be-lieves that teachers of the poor shouldbe trained in at least five ways! First,they must be trained to respect the dis-advantaged and their families by develop-ing interest in psychology and the cultureof the disadvantaged. Second, theyneed to be trained to understand what

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to look at, and how to look at theculture of the disadvantaged. Third,they need to be taught appropriatemethods of working with the poor,such as being direct and straight-forward, and clearly defining what isto be done. Fourth, they need to beprovided with teaching techniquesappropriate for low-income children,such as the Montessori system, gametechniques, and role playing. Fifth,

their various teacher styles theiridiosyncratic potentials, should bedeveloped instead of relying on thestereotype of the average well-adjust-ed teacher.

/Many educators including H.T. Manuelpropose that/ the teacher of Spanish-speaking children should be bilingual.This is also a conclusion o; Noreen(38) and of the NEA Tuscon Surveygroup (37). Manuel (35) feels that intraining teachers for schools in theSouthwest, attention should be givento the characteristics of disadvantagsdpeople in general and tothe culturaltraits of the Spanish-speaking people.Thus, the teacher of the Spanish-speak-ing should also know and appreciate theculture-of the Spanish-speaking. Otherwriters such as Noreen (38), Galbraith(16), and Chavez and Erickson (11) concuron this point.8 (emphasis mine)

If any general statement can be distilled'from all of the above it would be that there areno messianic solutions in sight. Specifically, theproblem is basically that of providing an equalopportunity to chicanos at all levels. But thatbroad goal encompases a number of sub-objectivesand enabling instrumentations. The American eluca-tional system must be moved forthwith out of noseineffective routines which have characterized itand which prompted an angry trainer of teachers to

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charge it with being "a superstructure built upon

the swamps of superstition by brujas, curanderas,

and lambiachis."

Basic reform has been tardy in coming and-until it does no significant progress can occur.:The use of para-professional personnel on careerladder sequences; the concept of differentiatedstaffing; the involvement of teachers in planningand conducting their own training programs; theprovision of opportunities for young Mexican Americarsto enter college in greater numbers; participationby the community; public school/college articulation;adjunct teacher training faculties; and any numberof other movements and ideas must be expeditiouslyintegrated into bilingual education if it is trulyto become a contributing force in education and notsimply another perfunctory "improvement" to be seenas "better than what we had before."

tit

2.

REFERENCES

Report of the National Advisory Committee onMexican American Education, The Mexican AmericanQuest'for'Equality, Albuquerque, SOuthwesternCooperative Educational Laboratory, 1968.

H.L. Browning, and S.D.McLemore. A StatisticalProfile of the Spanish Surname Population ofTexas; Austin: The University of Texas, Bureauof Business Research, 1964.

Report of the National Advisory Committee, 211...cit.

Ibid.

5. Project Teacher Excellence, Our Lady of the LakeCollege, San Antonio, Texas.

Severo GOmez, Assistant Commissioner of Educationfor Bilingual and International Education (Texas),Panel discussion during the 58th Annual Conferenceof the Texas Social Welfare Association, 1968,San Antonio, Texas.

7. Charles B. Brussell (compile); J.A. Foresterand E.E. Arnaud (eds), DisadvanttudnElialAmerican Childrenind Early_5ducational Experience;Austin: SouthWest tducational Development Corpor-ation, 1968, (Summarizing statements of H.T.Manuel in Spanish-speaking Children of the Southwest.).

Secondary sources:

(11) Chavez, S.J. and Erickson, T.L., "TeachingAmerican Children from Spanish - Speaking.

Homes,: Elementat School Journal January,1957. Vol. 7, pp. i 9 -203.

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(16) Galbraith, C.K,, "SpanisCommunicate," Chil

October, 1965. Vol.

h"Speaking Childrendhood Education,42, pp. 70-74.

(19) Goldberg, M.L., "Adapting TPupil Differences: Teadvantage Children," inHawkes, G.R. (eds.), DiIssues and Innovations;

eacher Style toachers for Dis-

Frost, J.L., andsadvantaged Child:Boston: Houghton

Mifflin Company, 1966. pp . 345-361,

(35) Manuel, H.T., "Recruiting and Trfor Spanish-Speaking ChildrSouthwest," School and Socie1968. Vol. 96, pp. 211-214.

aining Teachersen in thety, March 30,

(37) NEA-Tucson Survey on the Teaching of Spanish to 1

.

the Spanish-Speaking, The Invisible 1

Minority ... Pero No Vencibles; Washington,D.C.: National Education Association, De- 1

partment of Rural Education, 1966.

(38) Noreen, Sister, D.C., "A Bilingual Curricfor Spanish-Americans," Catholic JoJanuary, 1966. Vol. 66, pp. 25-26.

ulumurnal,

(49) Riessman, Frank, "Teachers of the Poor: APoint Plan," Journal of Teacher EducaFall, 1967. Vol. 117,pp.3276-3367-

Five-

tion,

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