Product Description: This text is a concise history of Anglo American racism and school policies affecting dominated groups in the United States. It focuses on the educational, legal, and social construction of race and racism, and on educational practices related to deculturalization, segregation, and the civil rights movement. Spring emphasizes issues of power and control in schools and shows how the dominant Anglo class has stripped away the culture of minority peoples in the U.S. and replaced it with the dominant culture. In the process, he gives voice to the often-overlooked perspectives of African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, and Native Americans. An understanding of these historical perspectives and how they impact current conditions and policies is critical to teachers� success or failure in today�s diverse classrooms. .
. Very brief and affordable, Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality is an ideal supplement for Introduction/Foundations of Education, Multicultural Education, or any course that seeks to expand student notions of what U.S. education has been and can be. .
Jumbled History This book claims to give a history of dominated cultures, but it is not written like a history book at all. The dates in this book go back and forth and you can't tell what is happening when. The different chapters are divided by races and there is no overlapping. For example: you can't tell when African Americans are experiencing segregation in schools in comparison to Native Americans. Also chapters end without any conclusion or resolution and Spring offers a paragraph "conclusion" to attempt to tie each chapter to the preceding chapters. This is a terrible book- save your time and you money and don't read it!
Manifest Destiny and other Historical Blind Spots Joel Spring is nothing if not productive - if you look over the books listed under the author's name, you'll see a plethora of works. Amongst those are the continual revamps of this work and others like it, and they always seem to add something new to the fray. Whether its a new piece of the puzzle that deals with race or commentary on the semantic differences used to avoid saying the word "black" because we don't want to culturally offend, Spring' work says something about a topic that is more than just a topic. It is history and it is a map of progression and the reversal, showcasing both the motions that have pressed a people forward and how much that motion has been used to keep other people from moving ahead.
In the 5th edition of this book, Spring deals with an overview of Anglo-American claims of superiority, Native American struggles, African-American struggles, the things Asian Americans have endured, Hispanic/Latino history, and the Civil Rights Movement and the new Culture Wars. In those chapters Spring brings up interesting points, like the use of "positive stereotypes" for Japanese-Americans and the history on those, and on several other "footnotes" in history that aren't really footnotes at all. Although the book is somewhat small, checking in under 150 pages, it lists a codex of laws and horrors that make one wonder if the artifice of "colorblindness" will ever truly fall away. One can hope, can't they?
If you find yourself attracted to the struggles of the now and wonder about the roots from which these struggles spawned, this is a god book to read. It has a lot more substance than the smoke and mirrors presented during "Hispanic Heritage Month" and other months like it, really giving you a feel of what Hispanic culture has endured. It goes beyond the superficial things that are presented so often these days, too, and makes the work relevant. Personally, I hope to understand and can always use something to show me the faults of both the past and newborn "now."
A good read for future educators This book gives a very different look at the history of Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics in the United States than you may have heard before. The content is easy to read, supplemented by statistics to help aid understanding. I would recommend this book to anyone who may be going to work in the education system.
The other side of American history Spring's thesis is that white Anglo-Saxon Protestants have systematically denied educational access to ethnic minorities in order to establish and perpetuate their own system of privilege. This powerful, concise book covers historical injustices against many groups. The book falls short only when the author attempts to extend his analysis to the present day. In his understandable indignation at historical wrongs, Spring fails to acknowledge the extent to which most Americans' beliefs thankfully have changed.
Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality This book gives us a lot of examples of how the minorities in this country have had their cultures altered to fit the American version. There are examples of most of the major minority groups and how the education system has played a major part in the pattern of deculturalization.This book is a must have for any student who wants to know the real history, the stuff they leave out of the text books, for any parent or teacher who wants to give their children the truth instead of white washed history, and any person who is interested in the truth.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
