Richard’s Educational Technology Blog

This week we added some new content to The Violin Site. If you haven’t checked it out yet, then take a moment. This is one of the most useful resources for violinists on the internet.

Today I had the opportunity to listen to Ignacio Garcia, professor at BYU. He spoke on the missing pieces of the educational experience for Latino students. The most important missing piece, in Garcia’s opinion, is “the intellectual piece”. As an example, he told a story about a time when he was serving as an advisor for a university Latino club. Garcia was received a call from a student who was organizing a campus multicultural week and wanted the Latino club to participate. Garcia’s answer was, “Yes, but won’t sing, we won’t dance and we won’t feed anybody.” The student never called back.

If we limited the US culture to square dancing and country music and told Anglo students that was their culture, it would embarrass them, said Garcia. The same thing happens with Latino students when we reduce their culture to Mariachis and burritos. Inspiring Latino students to do something with their life, requires something intellectual to motivate them. “Inspiration ought to come from beyond forming another Mariachi group in another school. . . We want [the Latino] community to be collectively responsible for themselves, but they have to be armed to do it.”