The Grind:
California is set to vote on a new curriculum for K-12 students, even as it faces criticism for promoting the belief that Europeans destroyed native religions with Christianity, and for one particularly troubling lesson: Teachers will lead students in an Aztec chant meant to please a god of human sacrifice.
The Details:
In its reading materials about the new K-12 curriculum’s focus on “ethnic studies,” the California Department of Education makes a series of confusing and troubling remarks about race. For example, it declares that while Mexican American students may be descended from Native Americans, they should not be included in this ethnicity, because “While Mexican Americans and Latina/o/x Americans have native ancestry, their indigenous histories are addressed in the Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x course outline.”
They also suggest the use of Latinx, because even though Spanish is a gendered language with different endings for male, -o, or female, -a, names, it, “The recent use of “x” is done for two purposes. The first “x” in Xicanx replaces the “ch” because the sound produced by “x” is much more in line with the Nahuatl language and indigenous etymologies. The second “x” renders the term gender-neutral and more inclusive of all identities.” Read more…