Precious Knowledge

Precious Knowledge

Precious Knowledge Film (2011)

Please watch the film “Precious Knowledge” 2011. This film is available in Foothill’s Kanopy library, Links to an external site.please use your student information to create an account to access the film for free. As you watch the film please take notes of what stands out to you, what new information you are learning, characters, ideas, etc. This film relates to this weeks theme because the Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program at Tucson Magnet High School was decolonial and successfully preparing students for higher education. Perhaps for that reason the program (along with its textbooks) was banned.

 

More details from the Kanopy Film Description:

“Precious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes.

While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled students, on average, graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college.The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this innovative curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who became engaged, informed, and active in their communities.

As the nation turns its focus toward a wave of anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a double-edged weapon in a simmering battle making front page news coast to coast. When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism, and a megaphone. Lawmakers and politicians respond with a public relations campaign to discredit the students, claiming that a textbook used in the classes, Paulo Freire’s The Pedagogy of the Oppressed teaches victimization and sedition. Officials ask that the classroom’s Che Guevara posters be replaced with portraits of founding father Benjamin Franklin. Meanwhile, the students answer back by fighting for what they believe is the future of public education for the entire nation, especially as the Latino demographic continues to grow.”

 

Film Questions:

Instructions- Please respond to each question with 3 complete sentences. Please submit this assignment as text, pdf, or a Microsoft word file.

  1. According to the film, what were students experiences in education before taking Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes? Please provide examples.
  2. Why were local politicians against students taking ethnic studies classes? How do they attempt to ban ethnic studies? Please provide examples.
  3. Does Precious Knowledge have a thesis or central argument? What is it? How is this argument introduced? Where do you think it is most clearly articulated in the film?
  4. How were the Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes depicted in this film decolonial? Please cite this weeks readings to help you answer this question.

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