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WEEKLY STATISTIC
Insubordination, disrespect, class disruption and fighting are usually handled with detention, suspension or even expulsion. But in 2010, 242,000 students were “referred to” law enforcement and 96,000 were arrested. Black and Hispanic students accounted for 70% of these numbers.
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WORD OF THE WEEK
HEGEMONY: The dominant elite who manipulate a culturally diverse society to accept their culture as the norm. They justify the status quo as natural and beneficial for everyone, instead of an artificial social construct that benefits only the dominant class. For example, America’s hegemony is the upper class, heterosexual, Christian white male.To be successful, you must speak, dress and behave like the hegemony. The hegemony is so “normal” it is invisible or unspoken, while any diverging trait (accent, race, religion, sexuality) is identified as outside the norm.
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WORDS HAVE POWER
“I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.” Margaret Atwood
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Mary Oliver
“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light. I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” Sarah Williams
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 WHAT IS CINCO DE MAYO?
Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico’s Independence Day, which was September 16, 1810. Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867).
If this seems like a minor event, it is a minor holiday in Mexico. Yet, in the U.S., Cinco de Mayo has become a huge celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, celebrating with parades, parties, mariachi music, Mexican folk dancing and traditional foods.
What was the battle of Puebla? Benito Juárez became President of a country in financial ruin, and was forced to default on his European debts. While Britain and Spain negotiated, France, ruled by Napoleon III, used the opportunity to claim an Empire. Certain of their success, 6,000 French troops attacked Puebla. Juárez and 2,000 untrained and poorly supplied men defended the city from daybreak to dusk. The French retreated after losing 500 soldiers. Fewer than 100 Mexicans were killed. While not a significant tactical victory, the battle was a great symbolic victory for the Mexican resistance movement. Mexican-American activists promoted the holiday in the 1960s, because they identified with the victory of indigenous Mexicans over European powers. Words have power. Read up!
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Fight The Word Gap 