Why aren’t ethnic studies a necessity for higher education at CUSD?
For a long amount of time, many CUSD students have become weary of the disappointing lack of ethnic classes in our curriculum. Studying history and culture was somewhat entertaining until I questioned the material given to all of us. Now, I can’t help but question: why on earth aren’t we learning more ethnic studies?
Without a doubt, CUSD needs ethnic classes implemented into the set courses for each school grade. A large body of middle school and high school students have been taught history that was only based on Europe. Considering the material taught was a continuous repetition of what I learned years ago, it’s quite disappointing to see that no change has been utilized to show students that there is history beyond Europe; there is a whole world left for discovery with rich culture and rich history that we are not exposed to.
These types of classes will educate all students on different cultures of varieties of races. Including these types of classes will allow light to be shed on certain sensitive topics such as racism, genocides, and unfair treatment that minorities have been experiencing for years. Additionally, this will allow students of color to have the chance to acquire more knowledge about their culture and history as well as include their thoughts and opinions. If thorough ethnic studies were enforced and taken seriously, racism and unfair judgment wouldn’t occur as frequently at CHS as it does today.
Kalilah Hamid, a current CHS senior, shared her thoughts about the lack of ethnic studies and how she has taken action to remedy this cause.
“I am the vice president of young democrats, and we and the president have been working with the Claremont colleges to create a syllabus for an ethnic studies class at a predominately white institution, like Claremont. “ Hamid said. “So, it would kind of be tailored to like making sure that white students get an understanding of the problems that people of color face in America.”
Ignoring suggestions from students to add ethnic studies to the curriculum is not only unfair, but also puts us students at a disadvantage by not being educated on certain important matters that have shaped history as a whole. There are many controversies behind adding these types of classes because it is said that they will entice hateful feelings towards different races and create more of a divide instead of bridging a gap. In reality, I believe that adding these classes will allow us students to learn from the mistakes that happened in the past so that we can be the reason that there is change in the world.
Ethnic classes are nonexistent in the current CUSD curriculum and that is something that a lot of students want to change. Adding these classes will allow us to continue educating ourselves on important topics instead of just learning about European history. Therefore, ethnic classes should be added to benefit us as a whole and encourage us to see the world in a more broad aspect.
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Boushra Bettir is a senior who has been in Wolfpacket since her junior year. She loves the culture in Korea, and is almost 2 years into learning the language....
