Banned Book

In Tucson, Arizona the book Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district. The Tucson Unified School District ordered that teachers remove the book from their classroom as a result of a vote by the school board's vote to abolish the Mexican American Studies program. This was very surprising because Rethinking Columbus is Rethinking Schools' top selling book and over the years many school districts from cities around the United States have purchased the book for their students. It offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students consider perspectives that are often silenced in the traditional curriculum.

I don't know why this school district would ban this book or try to abolish Mexican American Studies altogether because it is important for everybody to know about their history. There shouldn't be people dictating what someone has a right to learn about. It would be like the equivalent of getting rid of any other history in schools. It is not the right thing to do. The only reason I can even imagine the school district doing this is because they think that Mexican American Studies is not important to learn and they could use that time to teach something else. In my opinion history is just as important as any other discipline and we all could benefit from learning not only the history of ourselves but others as well.

In conclusion, it is not a good idea to get rid of this book and Mexican American Studies. Everyone was a right to know about his or her history and someone should not be able to regulate that. Everyone's history is important and it makes you think that maybe they are trying to cover something up. From a psychological perspective it could raise their confidence to know about their culture. What ever they are trying to accomplish by removing this program from the schools I don't think it is the smart thing to do.