Why do high school students need ethnic studies?

California will make history as the first state in the nation to require ethnic studies instruction in all public high schools. California's leadership should be applauded, given that enrollment in ethnic studies courses has been shown to improve academic outcomes for at-risk students, among other important benefits. It is. States considering similar moves, such as Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont, would be similarly applauded if they followed California's lead.

Educating students about the social and political importance of race and ethnicity and the experiences of minority communities throughout U.S. history, although some have recently sought to minimize the importance of this field. There is no denying that it allows students to participate fully, constructively and productively. In your national life, contribute to making our country one of the most vibrant, multiracial, multiracial societies in the world.

However, as California moves forward, recent commentary has begun to promote an overly limited description of ethnic studies that deeply threatens ongoing progress.

In this mistaken understanding, harsh positions among a small number of ethnic studies scholars on contemporary geopolitical issues are mistakenly interpreted as defining entire large fields of study. But in reality, ethnic studies is neither narrow nor prescriptive. At the heart of this discipline is free inquiry rather than predetermined conclusions. Field research examines how race, ethnicity, and indigeneity are embedded in people's collective experiences from historical, political, social, and cultural perspectives, and how they are integrated into class, gender, sexuality, We explore and ask questions about how it fits in with other aspects of social discrimination, such as religion. and legal status.

Within the United States, the field often focuses such complex, multilayered research on the experiences of white populations who are not of Western or Northern European descent or of Protestant Christian faith. . More typically, it focuses on the difficult history of indigenous, black, Asian American, and Latino peoples in the United States, often related to international political issues. For example, when an African-American woman wearing a hijab was detained for questioning by the FBI at Newark Liberty Airport on her way to a vacation in Istanbul, this incident raised concerns about U.S. surveillance of people of color and women's It touched on the long history of social control. Continued tensions between the United States and Islam also played a role.

Although this field has so far only been addressed at university level, it is interestingly complex and hierarchical. Although we cannot expect this level of complexity to be fully replicated within a high school curriculum, high school students can certainly and will become accustomed to the flexibility, expandability, and exploration that truly defines this field. Have to.

High school students are not only capable of this kind of thinking, they are morally obligated to be trained in it. Ultimately, the development of ethnic studies as a field of academic inquiry in the late 1960s and early 1970s was driven by the need for students to learn about the experiences and perspectives of minority groups and the vital role they play. My understanding was that if I wasn't being taught, Recognizing racial differences in the social, political, and cultural life of this country, past and present, leaves them with an incomplete, inaccurate, and impoverished account of this country's history. Masu. Without this complete education, individuals cannot function as responsible democratic citizens.

It is therefore a grave disservice to allow ethnic studies to be reduced to a caricature that diminishes its essence.

California high schools will begin offering ethnic studies in the 2025-26 school year, and all students will be required to take ethnic studies to graduate in 2029-30, allowing them and other students to be taught. There is a risk of creating a movement that undermines the content. Withholding that thorough education means denying students access to the very kinds of social and cultural complexity that we know to be most fascinating and fascinating. . For example, the breathtaking poignancy of Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial is considered in the context of the intense controversy its design initially aroused.Or what about the very strong examples of African American cultural expression that emerged in Harlem and other areas during the height of Jim Crow in the 1920s? Or how about the wily and beautiful 20-year-old Legionnaires?^th Century hot rod culture found in Latino lowrider communities in California, New Mexico, and Texas?

It also means depriving them of powerful tools to meet the challenges they will inevitably face as members of a highly complex and rapidly evolving global society. This society is made up of countless people with countless different characteristics and lived experiences. .

History has shown us that without deep intention and knowledge, social differences can easily translate into social hierarchies that hinder our collective ability to solve the problems we commonly face. Ethnic studies is not just an academic abstraction. It affects social inequalities in the United States and beyond, and helps dismantle the racial hierarchies that hold us all back. Helping U.S. students become familiar with the deep and challenging issues of the field is good for them and for society as a whole.

Philip Brian Harper is director of higher education programs at the Mellon Foundation.