Guest Column

By Manuel Hernandez/HispanicVista.com
August 29, 2005

            The key to a higher education is changing dramatically, and the education of Latinos needs to make concise and specific adjustments to enhance the academic opportunities of its teens. According to John Cloud’s essay “Inside The New SAT”, “an exhaustive revision” of the SAT’s is meant to “mold the U.S. secondary school system to its liking”(Time, October 27, 2003). These changes are being implemented for the SAT’s this year. The new SAT will have three sections: reading, writing and math. The changes will provoke spontaneous and widespread curriculum changes in the United States that will without a doubt affect the education of Latinos and other American teens as well.

            The changes aim to produce better writing skills in students, so the new SAT will require an essay. Of the three new sections, two are interrelated: reading and writing. Recent research (Noyce and Christie, 1989, Burkland and Peterson, 1986 and Uttero, 1989) sustains that there is a strong relationship between the two. But Latino teens that are recent arrivals (one to three years in the U.S.) are at an extreme disadvantage. Because Latino teens have had little or no exposure to the American and British classics, they will surely have difficulties answering the reading section, which will include a fiction passage.

            Latinos make up 3% of the profile of students taking the test and score lower than White and Asian American students. The SAT is the ticket to a college education, and the education of Latinos must undergo curriculum changes in reading and writing to meet the current SAT demands. If we are to improve the academic opportunities of our children, Latino leaders in education must set aside agendas, issues and goals and focus on strategies to help Latino teens prepare for the new SAT.

As the American Latino population continues to grow in unprecedented numbers, the educational development of the largest minority cannot be taken for granted. Latino/a literature written in English by American Latino writers exposes students to issues such as education, family, values, self-esteem, self-acceptance, conflicts in identity, varied approaches to race, language, domestic violence and the preservation of culture and art which provoke students to make their own reactions and responses to literature. Reading Latino/a literature is an alternative to the teaching of literature and a tool that will prepare students for city, state and national testing requirements and will enhance their reading comprehension, literary appreciation and written communication skills in English.

However, for Latino teens whose language, culture and education is generally not portrayed in the writings of William Faulkner or Ernest Hemingway, Latino/a literature provides the context and establishes the bridge between the so-called classics and connects students to ideas and themes portrayed in literature. The Department of Education is undoubtedly working towards the attainment of better academic objectives for all American children. But it is time to include the teaching of Latino/a literature as a “tool” and “bridge” in the curriculum especially in districts where Latino teens are representative of a strong minority of the school population. Just like the new SAT, the integration of the literature as a “tool” will positively affect the educational outcome of Latinos and other American teens as well.

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Manuel Hernandez:

Born and raised in Sleepy Hollow, New York in 1963. At eleven years of age, Manuel Hernandez' family moved to Puerto Rico. He finished grade school in Puerto Rico. He received his B.A. in English; secondary education at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus in 1986 and completed his M. A. in English at Herbert H. Lehman College in the Bronx, New York in 1994.

 Hernandez has presented workshops, coordinated symposiums, conducted television interviews and moderated panels on the literature written by United States based Latino writers in Puerto Rico, the United States and Mexico. He also writes commentary essays on education for several websites and newspapers in Puerto Rico and The United States. He recently published a textbook titled, Latino/a Literature in The English Classroom (Editorial Plaza Mayor, 2003). The book was nominated for Latino Book of The Year 2004. He teaches full-time in the public schools in Puerto Rico.

 His vision is to promote Latino Literature to motivate teens to read and write. Having an encounter with Latino Literature will help teens (especially Latino teens) to improve their scores on city, national and statewide exams and will prepare them for further literary analysis. Hernandez lives in Luquillo, Puerto Rico and enjoys spending his free time with his beautiful wife, Maria and his fifteen-year old son, Joey. He is a leader in the G-12 Vision at Abundant Life Church in Fajardo.

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