California first state to require ethnic studies for high school graduation

&gt; In California, 70% of students are students of color. They go through 12 years of an education — taking everything from mathematics to biology — and yet it’s taken 53 years to get a single course in something that is relevant to their own personal historical trajectory.<p>They included Asians in that figure. I wonder how they will explain college admission here, &quot;We can see that Asians were discriminated heavily against historically in USA, but things changed so now we too must discriminate against Asians or they will dominate our colleges!&quot;.<p>The discrimination in admissions is bad enough, but now they will force every Asian kid to sit and listen why it is good that the state discriminates against them even though history didn&#x27;t favor them.

These studies just reaffirm tribal and racial differences between Americans. If you were Russia or China, eagerly awaiting the strategic downfall of America (which can only come from within), you&#x27;d happily champion and fund these sort of studies.<p>What is life like in Armenia, Israel, Africa, Punjab? Poorer, less free, less liberal (in the original sense of the word) than America.<p>This is not an education, its indoctrination.

The framing makes me worry. Presumably the mainstream whiteish culture is, uh, not ethnic? In other words, white remains normal; the standard from which others deviate. It is necessary to talk about and bring awareness of difference, but hopefully not highlighting and emphasising it in the process.<p>Would it not be more appropriate to incorporate this into history generally? I got the 90s revision curriculum here in Ontario, Canada and the indigenous peoples, waves of European conquerors, peasant refugees, and the modern immigration system, and just the origins of the peoples of this country was thematic from first grade. (And not all with rose-tinted glasses. Jewish refugees sent back to Europe. Cash payments for indigenous scalps. The &quot;reasonable&quot; compromise that ended slavery by slowly phasing it out. Mass detentions by race in WW II, among other things. Though any mainstream account ends up distorting and streamlining.)

It seems provocative, but it wasn&#x27;t clear what the graduation requirement was for basic financial literacy, logical reasoning, negotiation, management and leadership, legal and civic government literacy, some basic actuarial, economics knowledge, and other things that would improve life outcomes for every student. If those were included, this would be a less polarizing story.

My sympathies to those poor students for having to study all that bullshit before graduation. I hated history in high school as well.

&gt; These included Jewish and pro-Israel advocates, who asserted that the original draft of the model curriculum was anti-Israel and defined Islamophobia but not antisemitism.<p>&gt; The final version deletes the lessons and references that offended some Jewish groups.<p>Does anyone know what those lessons and references were? The article doesn&#x27;t say.

The new ABCs:<p>Anywhere<p>But<p>California