ANAHEIM A group of local educators unveiled new curriculum Wednesday aimed at informing youth about Mexican American history and Mendez v. Westminster, the court case that ended school segregation in California and paved the way for desegregation nationwide.
The materials were outlined during an event at the Tiger Woods Learning Center, which included a play by high school students and remarks by Sylvia Mendez. Mendez's parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, successfully sued the Westminster School District in 1945 when their children weren't allowed to attend an all-white school.
The case was cited in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education suit, which ended school segregation at the national level.
"My mother and father fought for all of us," Sylvia Mendez said Wednesday. "It's important for students to know that they can study and work hard and live the American dream that I am living today."
The curriculum, which adheres to state standards, is geared toward fourth and 11th graders. It touches on topics related to Mexican American history and the civil-rights movement, like then Mendez case, migration trends and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – the document that ended the Mexican-American War.
The information is intended to help students see that Mexican Americans have a long history in this country, and set the stage for better relations and understanding between students of all ethnic backgrounds, said Jose Moreno, a Cal State Long Beach professor who helped develop the curriculum.
"America is a wonderful and important project but has had its history of imperfections," he said. "The more we know about the errors in the past, in context, the better we can avoid them in the future and pull America together."
The curriculum could be downloaded from the Internet and used in classrooms across the state starting in the 2010-11 school year, if the topic is approved as a framework by the state board of education, said development committee member Michael Matsuda, a coordinator for quality-teacher programs for the Anaheim Union High School District.
Susan Martimo, an administrator of curriculum frameworks for the state department of education, said the state board has asked the committee currently charged with updating the guidelines to include the Mendez case in history-social science framework for K-12 public schools.
Although the details are still being hammered out, the Mendez case could make it into framework slated to go into effect no later than next May, she said.
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