The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836-1981 (Fronteras Series, No. 2) - Hardcover

Blanton, Carlos Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585443107 ISBN 13: 9781585443109

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Despite controversies over current educational practices, Texas boasts a rich and vibrant bilingual tradition and not just for Spanish-English instruction, but for Czech, German, Polish, and Dutch as well. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Texas educational policymakers embraced, ignored, rejected, outlawed, then once again embraced this tradition.

In The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, author Carlos Blanton traces the educational policies and their underlying rationales, from Stephen F. Austin’s proposal in the 1830s to Mexicanize” Anglo children by teaching them Spanish along with English and French, through the 1981 passage of the most encompassing bilingual education law in the state’s history. Blanton draws on primary materials, such as the handwritten records of county administrators and the minutes of state education meetings, and presents the Texas experience in light of national trends and movements, such as Progressive Education, the Americanization Movement, and the Good Neighbor Movement.

By tracing the many changes that eventually led to the re-establishment of bilingual education in its modern form in the 1960s and the 1981 passage of a landmark state law, Blanton reconnects Texas with its bilingual past.

About this title

About the Author

CARLOS KEVIN BLANTON, an assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University, earned his Ph.D. from Rice University. His research in Mexican American educational history has been published in journals such as the Pacific Historical Review and Social Science Quarterly.

Review

“A masterful work. The author’s writing style is superb. This one is a trailblazer and will be useful for anyone with an interest in Mexican American education, history, and sociology.”--Arnoldo De Leon, Angelo State University (Arnoldo De Leon, Angelo State University)

The history of bilingual education has been highly politicized during much of the twentieth century. Blanton examines the rich tradition of bilingual education in Texas during its years under the authority of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the United States. He demonstates that national political trends directly influnced the use of bilingual education in public shools, whether it was to Mexicanize Euroamerican children in the early nineteenth entur or Anglicize Hispanic children during the first half of the twentieth century. Of particular interst to SMRCers is Blanton's briefdiscussion in the first chapter of the origins of bilingual education during the Spanish colonial period.

(SMRC Revista)

Edition details

• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1585443107
• ISBN 13: 9781585443109
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216