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California’s new ethnic studies curriculum is being put to an early test in Orange County, where organizers are riling up parents in the Los Alamitos Unified School District to oppose elective coursework and materials they say promote divisive, anti-white rhetoric.
“These courses are filled with hate for America and all America stands for,” opponents wrote in a letter to the Los Alamitos community, adding that the curriculum “teaches children that America is based on white supremacy and that white people are racists, even if they don’t know it.” It’s an extreme view in a state that is a national leader in ethnic studies education, but the opposition is gaining a footing in some conservative corners.
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California needs ethnic studies - and its controversies
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Illustration for Claude Goldenberg piece on ethnic studiesGetty Images/iStockphoto
Almost everyone dislikes the state’s model curriculum for ethnic studies, even its authors. Which is precisely why California should adopt it now.
Anything that California’s usually apathetic adults can argue passionately about state education officials received tens of thousands of public comments on the curriculum is something the kids should learn all about.
Through four years of controversy and multiple reviews and revisions, the curriculum has been perversely unifying, taking fire from many racial, ethnic and religious groups. The left finds it insufficiently revolutionary; the center, too politicized and jargon-laden. The right thinks it’s some kind of conspiracy involving cancel culture. And as the state moves toward making ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement, the curriculum’s own author
Jacob Huerta prefers to take an honest approach when teaching the pilot ethnic studies course at Redwood High School.
Huerta, who has taught history at the Visalia high school for four years, acknowledges the ugly facts.” He doesn t want his students to think, That guy lied to me.
“Yes. Some negative things occurred,” he said. “They will find that out anyway.” For the most part, Huerta focuses on the positive contributions of ethnic groups, he added.
Huerta uses real-world examples to show his students they’re not much different from the groups they’re learning about through various newspaper articles, documentaries and books, including “A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki.