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I thought you all would be interested in this story: "NPR : Fifty
Years After 'Brown v. Board of Education'"<br><br>
<<a href="http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1751945" eudora="autourl">http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1751945</a>>
<br><br>
<br>
This is a story from "All Things Considered" that mentions a
charter school in Los Angeles where the students take Nahua names and
also learn some Nahuatl. The reporter was Claudio
Sanchez.<br><br>
Just click on the headline or the audio icon to listen to the
story. You'll need an audio player to hear it, and you can find the
right one for your computer at
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<br>
Here is a transcript of part of the interview where Nahuatl is
mentioned:<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><b>SANCHEZ:</b> The kind of
voluntary school segregation that Alexander is talking about is thriving
in some neighborhoods. This is Academia Semillas del Pueblo, Seeds of the
People Academy, a privately run, publicly funded charter school housed in
an old Masonic lodge in El Sereno, about 50 miles east of downtown Los
Angeles.<br><br>
Mr. MARCOS AGUILAR (Principal, Academia Semillas del Pueblo): (Spanish
spoken)<br><br>
<b>SANCHEZ:</b> This morning, the school's 28-year-old principal, Marcos
Aguilar, his all-Latino faculty and over a hundred parents are
celebrating the school's second year in operation. Semillas del Pueblo is
open to children of all races, ethnicities and religions, but the school
clearly caters to Mexican families.<br><br>
Mr. AGUILAR: (Spanish spoken)<br><br>
Group of Students: (Speaking Spanish in unison)<br><br>
<b>SANCHEZ:</b> Students learn English, Spanish and Nahuatl, an ancient
language indigenous to Mexico and Central America. Math and science
instruction revolves around the Aztec calendar. Students are grouped and
assigned Nahuatl names printed on banners, each tied to a spear. Aguilar,
who once taught at Garfield High, says segregation is not a concern here.
Fifty years ago, he argues, the Brown decision created an expectation
that once children of all races attended the same schools, they would be
treated equally so they could all have a stake in the future of this
country. But Aguilar says that for many minority children, Latinos in
particular, that has not happened.<br><br>
Mr. AGUILAR: When I was a high school teacher at Garfield High School,
one of the largest high schools in the United States, most of the Mexican
children there had lost a sense of identity, because its own
administration and the general policy of the Los Angeles Unified School
District is, in fact, to Americanize Mexican and African-American
children in Los Angeles. And they would argue that that's good. I believe
that that's not good.<br><br>
<b>SANCHEZ:</b> What public schools are doing today, says Aguilar, is
preparing Latinos for nothing more than minimum wage jobs. Here at
Semillas del Pueblo, he says, Latino children and their families can
claim their rightful place in American society on their terms.<br><br>
Mr. AGUILAR: Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States or in the
Declaration of Independence does it say that, because you come here, you
have to now become an American. The United States is who is the immigrant
here, not us.<br>
</blockquote><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
John F. Schwaller<br>
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean<br>
315 Behmler Hall<br>
University of Minnesota, Morris<br>
600 E 4th Street<br>
Morris, MN 56267<br>
320-589-6015<br>
FAX 320-589-6399<br>
schwallr@mrs.umn.edu<br>
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