Bear-Arms
Mentor
A recent Mexican Independence Day assembly at Larkin High may have taken cultural sensitivity one step too far, a Larkin parent said this week.
Robert Bedard said his son was reprimanded when he declined to stand for the Mexican National Anthem during a ceremony at the west Elgin school last month.
His 17-year-old son, a senior in the process of enlisting, feared honoring another nation's anthem might jeopardize his military status. Sitting down cost him a trip to the office.
Bedard questioned this week whether the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance.
"I am concerned that the Mexican Americans have unfairly monopolized the teaching of cultural awareness at this school," said Bedard, a lieutenant with the Elgin fire department. "At least that's the perspective of a parent. I'd love to be corrected."
School leaders sought to do just that.
Just as Latino students orchestrated an assembly for Mexican Independence Day, officials said, black students host an assembly commemorating black history month in February.
"If we were teaching one culture's history over another, then we have an issue," school board President Ken Kaczynski said Wednesday. "But I don't think that's the case."
The history lesson followed a maelstrom of controversy last spring when a Larkin student wrote an essay lamenting the celebration of Mexican holidays in American schools.
The teen faulted Mexican students, saying they shouldn't have lowered the American flag in favor of a Mexican flag on Sept. 16, 2004.
Larkin officials later said the American flag was raised again before class began. No students ever were found responsible.
"Of the ethnic groups at Larkin," Principal Richard Webb said, "the Hispanic group is growing at the most increased rate and of that Hispanic group, the vast majority of students are Mexican-American."
Of the 2,550 students enrolled at Larkin last year, 38.4æpercent were Latino. Nearly a quarter of students were new to English. Information for the current school year is not yet available.
Four years earlier, 20 percent of the school's 2,029 students were Latino, according to the 2000 school report card. Some 10 percent of students spoke English as a second language.
As the school grows more diverse, cultural assemblies will follow, Bedard said. But they should take care to represent a range of cultures, including the homegrown one.
"If they have an assembly, I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well," Bedard said. "It's just respect for both cultures."
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=102507
Robert Bedard said his son was reprimanded when he declined to stand for the Mexican National Anthem during a ceremony at the west Elgin school last month.
His 17-year-old son, a senior in the process of enlisting, feared honoring another nation's anthem might jeopardize his military status. Sitting down cost him a trip to the office.
Bedard questioned this week whether the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance.
"I am concerned that the Mexican Americans have unfairly monopolized the teaching of cultural awareness at this school," said Bedard, a lieutenant with the Elgin fire department. "At least that's the perspective of a parent. I'd love to be corrected."
School leaders sought to do just that.
Just as Latino students orchestrated an assembly for Mexican Independence Day, officials said, black students host an assembly commemorating black history month in February.
"If we were teaching one culture's history over another, then we have an issue," school board President Ken Kaczynski said Wednesday. "But I don't think that's the case."
The history lesson followed a maelstrom of controversy last spring when a Larkin student wrote an essay lamenting the celebration of Mexican holidays in American schools.
The teen faulted Mexican students, saying they shouldn't have lowered the American flag in favor of a Mexican flag on Sept. 16, 2004.
Larkin officials later said the American flag was raised again before class began. No students ever were found responsible.
"Of the ethnic groups at Larkin," Principal Richard Webb said, "the Hispanic group is growing at the most increased rate and of that Hispanic group, the vast majority of students are Mexican-American."
Of the 2,550 students enrolled at Larkin last year, 38.4æpercent were Latino. Nearly a quarter of students were new to English. Information for the current school year is not yet available.
Four years earlier, 20 percent of the school's 2,029 students were Latino, according to the 2000 school report card. Some 10 percent of students spoke English as a second language.
As the school grows more diverse, cultural assemblies will follow, Bedard said. But they should take care to represent a range of cultures, including the homegrown one.
"If they have an assembly, I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well," Bedard said. "It's just respect for both cultures."
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=102507
