DOCUMENT RESUME ED 052 508 CG 006 518 AUTHOR Davidson, Walter Craig TITLE The Mexican American High School Graduate of Laredo. A Laredo Independent School District Study. INSTITUTION Laredo Independent School District, Tex. SPONS AGENCY Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D.C. PUB DATE [70] GRANT OEG-7-8-006709-0080(056) NOTE 212p. EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$9.87 DESCRIPTORS Adjustment Problems, *Educational Disadvantagement, Educational Environment, *Educational Experience, *Environmental Influences, *High School Graduates, High School Role, *Mexican Americans, School Environment ABSTRACT An enormous amount of information and research is summarized in this report. The study concerns itself with the identification and interpretation of those factors that are germane to a Mexican-American high school graduate's perception of himself, his school, his home, his community, and their interrelationship and from which he attempts to relate himself effectively to the rest of the world and, thereupon, to construct the matrix of his life after graduation from high school. A conversational approach to data gathering was utilized. The author illuminates the reader concerning Laredo itself, the entire geographical area, the school district and, most importantly, the situation of Mexican-Americans who must live and confront this environment. Wide-ranging implications and conclusions, based on the comprehensive data, are included. In general, the public schools of Laredo are grossly deficient in providing the Mexican-American graduate with the skills and experiences which he needs to make it in the society with which he is confronted upon graduation. The research reported herein was funded under Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (TL) U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG- INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN- IONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY Dweller is: The MexicanAmerican Barrio reasonable "One who doesnot possess a increasingly sufficiency forsatisfying while This research study was fundedthrough an ESEA Title III grant Welfare to the from the U.S. Departmentof Health, Education and Laredo Independent SchoolDistrict. Grant No. OEG7-S-006709-008O-(056) A Laredo Independent School District Study THU M);XICM AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL GlIADDATE OFLAREDO Walter Craig Davidson Federal Projects Laredo Independent School District 1618 Houston St. Laredo, Texas 78040 PREFACE This study concerns itself with the identification and interpretation of those factors that are germaine to a Mexican-American high school graduate's perception of himself, his school and community, his home, and the interrelationship of these areas and from which he extracts those factors that, to him, are pertinent in his attempts to relate himself effectively to the rest of the world and upon which he attempts to construct the matrix of his life after graduation from high school. The methodological format of the study is predicated on an attempt to overcome the disenchantment of many researchers, in the social- and behavioral science areas, with a purely quantitative analysis of accumulated data, with the underlying assumption that from such quantification, quality or the essence, can be inferred or distilled. The statistical evidence or quantity is no substitute for the quality inherent in the human experience. Thus, there is little concern with trying to elicit from the data an interpretation of quality or the lack of it, by a demonstration of "rigorous quantitative method" at the expense of ascertaining from an individual person's point of view, precisely why he believes his life since high school graduation has been as it has, what it is that seems to have caused various and unforseen difficulties and what needs to be done to prevent or ameliorate the effects of such problems in the lives of the graduates in the future. And one is virtually forced to assume this position because for every problem or situation identified by such quantitative methods there is another problem or situation with identical quantitative characteristics Iv 6 but with very different qualitative human results; there must be something quantification does not and indeed, cannot, take into account. Quantitative methods and quantified results simply fail to furnish data that provide a useful interpretation from the standpoint of the underlying interdependent factors that serve as the subliminal sociologi- cal communication and interaction pattern of a cultural matrix and upon which individual psychological interpretation of sensory perception and individual sociological involvement are almost wholly dependent.By way of example of this rather oversimplified concept; when one observes that the quality of life style and accomplishment have become for almost everyone, psychologically externalized, it follows that the judgement of others and the assigned or acquired status of an individual depends upon what goods does he have for visual display and what services can he command at what price. Next, it appears that the locus of self-respect is for all these people no longer found through introspection. Further, while this situation has existed for the uneducated for sometime, it seems to encompass today a larger percentage of the U.S. population than it did prior to the Industrial Revolution. Also to be considered is that this is the basis for non-intellectualism and anti-intellectualism, with the mitigating element in the latter being that usually it requires the use of some small segment of the mental faculties in social involvement. Thus, from the above, it is not difficult to deduce either excellent teaching strategies or why, for example, popular TV programs are so popular and why the efforts from outside the industry, to raise the quality of them will not succeed. Also, stemming from a lack of understanding of the importance of the above concept, are the attempts to identify and utilize only the certain and rational in the face of the reality of much obvious uncertainty and irrationality.Such V 7 quantitative efforts have lead us into research results useful only for making the widest, shallowest and least helpful generalizations. To apply such broad statistically based abstractions to the field of public schooling is to negate not only all we, at this point, know about the individuality of the learning process but to render sterile the basic rationale if not of the schools themselves, then.that of their compulsory attendance regulations, i.e., that engagement in the social process of legally approved schooling is so vital to the well being of the individual and to the society at large, that attendance is mandatory for a period of time and graduation therefrom is a celebrated event. In short, if we cannot verify by individual behavioral results that schooling is indeed worthwhile for all whom we require to attend, then to demand such attendance becomes, at the least, immoral, in a democratic society, and, at the very best, in any society, unethical. The point is that one cannot aid a school. One can improve a social situation or institution only by concern and action that is both affective and effective oa an individual basis. The problems created for society and the societal problems of the unsuccessful graduates, to the degree that such lack of success can be attributed to a deficient high school curriculum experience, are a result of many individual decisions and will be ameliorated in an identical fashion or not at all. School authorities seem prone to seek solutions to problems made evident by the accretion of individual decisions, by recreating the classroom environment, i.e., with teacher, text and regimented rows of students. Since twelve years of this environment have not produced very many MexicanAmerican high school graduates who can even read a newspaper, with a considerable percentage of the total possessing an attitude toward themselves that seems permanently arrested at the early VI stages of puberty, an attitude that is based largely if not exclusively on an obvious and deep seated reluctance to assume the legal and moral responsibilities attendent on chronological age maturity, one remains perplexed as to the rationale for attempting to alter individual behavior on a predictable basis, by the continued predominate use of this authori- tative method of schooling. While the inclusion of the responses of principals and teachers as quoted in Appendix A will hardly furnish the key to the dynamics of Mexican-American individual and thus, cultural change, at the least they will provide some acquaintanceship with the social milieu of Laredo as perceived by some of its better informed Mexican-American citizens and it is not unlikely that they contain a key to the dynamics of the high school graduates behavior; a matter that will be more fully explored in the Implications. Very simply, this study is designed to illuminate the feelings of the graduates through seeking what is deep in their hearts by listening to them and from such conversations, ascertaining what in their opinion needs to be done to bring about sensible changes in the public school setting to increase both the rate and degree of success for future graduates. In brief, the public school must be held to high standards of social accounta- bility for the results of the requirements for their students insofar as those requirements for graduation contribute to the probability of success or failure, after the student has graduated. This study is also largely restricted to the Mexican-American of Laredo with whom the personal and professional contacts of the writer have been almost invariably pleasant.However, several of them, as one might expect, share with some people of other cultures the individual problem of how to VI6 disagree without being disagreeable, and they often fall into the emotional trap of attacking the person instead of the intellectual content under discussion.