29 June 2010

"What are you doing in my country?"

When Coral Avilez went to school on June 11, the seventh-grader knew two things: She would get to watch Mexico play South Africa on TV that day, and she would get to wear the Mexico shirt she had bought while on vacation earlier in the year...

The game was already on when Coral walked into performing arts class at Big Bear Middle School in Big Bear, Calif. As she sat and watched, her teacher saw her shirt emblazoned with the Mexican colors and, in front of the entire class, asked if she supported Mexico, according to Leroy Martinez, the vice president of the local League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

According to Martinez, Coral thought she was being asked a soccer question, and answered yes.

“Then what are you doing in my country?” the teacher asked, according to Martinez.

Stunned, the American-born student asked, “Why?”

“Because people like you make me pay higher taxes and make my insurance rate go up,” the teacher replied, according to Martinez.

Confused and hurt, Coral then ran out of the class crying.
I'll defer commentary (although I am confused as to why a "performing arts class" would spend their school time watching a World Cup game on television (?)).  Depending on your worldview and level of sophistication, you can read comments at FOXNews or at Reddit.

4 comments:

  1. Ummm...I couldn't tell which site you meant contained the more sophisticated comments?

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  2. I will pass on Fox news, thank you very much. This is a subject that drives me mad. That a teacher would say something like that to a student is shameful and totally unprofessional. Maybe he/she should move to Arizona... BTW, I wore my USA shirt when we played Ghana, and my México shirt when Mexico played Argentina.

    I wish these Know Nothings would at least stop inflicting their stupidity on children.

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  3. I made the mistake of reading a page or two of the fox news comments. It makes me angry every time.

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  4. I know I'm late to the game (just getting through my reader to posts from the beginning of my vacation last week) but to your question of why they were watching the game: that day was likely the last day of school (or very close to it). A performing arts class (I'm envisioning a combo band/choir/drama thing here) would have done their last performance at least the week prior and would therefore not need to rehearse anything. When I was in middle school 15 years ago, the last days of choir were spent watching a musical like 'Oklahoma' or 'Hello Dolly'. Educationally, watching a soccer match is no different in my book.

    ReplyDelete

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