Education Challenges Facing Hispanics in the United States

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the population of Hispanics in the United States has reached numbers that are finally drawing that attention of schools, state offices, the federal government, and the marketplace. As the new, largest minority, as well as the largest bilingual group, in the United States, Hispanics are finally being recognized as a group of people with the potential to greatly impact economic, social, and education reform. In this paper, several issues will be examined that relate to education: language barriers, poverty, cultural representation, and problem schools. Through an understanding of the Hispanic culture and the motivation behind the Hispanic population, the American education system will be able to overcome the natural hindrances of a diverse society.

Before examining the educational issues surrounding Hispanics, an understanding is necessary of the population numbers that the United States and public school systems are seeing. According to Census 2000, the Hispanic population of t...

... middle of paper ...

...portunities in the United States to flourish and prosper. As the African-American population has discovered, being a minority has made their culture stronger. As the new, largest minority, Hispanics not only have to overcome the cultural barriers, but also those of language; something the current African-American culture has not faced. Even the business world has identified the Hispanic culture as being a very profitable market in the future. With cartoons on television designed to specifically appeal to Hispanics such as Dora the Explorer and The Proud Family, it is obvious that the future of the Hispanic culture lies in the youth. Once the Hispanic population identifies that its future lies in its youth and places leaders in positions of honor and respect among other cultures, then the Hispanics culture will receive the recognition it so rightfully deserves.