More Details

Summary:

Precious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes. While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High's Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled students, on average, graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college. The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this innovative curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who became engaged, informed, and active in their communities. As the nation turns its focus toward a wave of anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a double-edged weapon in a simmering battle making front page news coast to coast. When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism, and a megaphone. Lawmakers and politicians respond with a public relations campaign to discredit the students, claiming that a textbook used in the classes, Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed teaches victimization and sedition. Officials ask that the classroom's Che Guevara posters be replaced with portraits of founding father Benjamin Franklin. Meanwhile, the students answer back by fighting for what they believe is the future of public education for the entire nation, especially as the Latino demographic continues to grow.

Contributors:

Palos, Ari , filmmaker

Kanopy (Firm)

Genres:

Internet videos

Online media

System Details:

Digital format: System requirements: Adobe Flash or equivalent.

General Notes:

Streaming media.
Title from title frames.
In Process Record.
Restricted to the University of North Texas System.
Originally produced by Dos Vatos in 2011.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 video file)

Audio Characteristics:

digital

Digital Characteristics:

video file

Call Numbers:

Online Video

Other Standard Numbers:

Publisher Number, Kanopy: 1155997

OCLC Numbers:

921960985

Other Control Numbers:

[Unknown Type]: kan1155997