A Critically Compassionate Intellectualism for Latina/o Students: Raising Voices Above the Silencing in Our Schools

Julio Cammarota is an assistant professor and Augustine Romero is a graduate student in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology and the Mexican-American Studies and Research Center at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Latina/o students often experience coursework that is remedial and unchallenging––benign at best, a dumbing-down at worst (Solórzano & Yosso, 2001). This potential limiting curriculum is not only failing to provide Latinas/os with the credentials necessary to advance economically, but their education denies them the opportunity to develop the critical voices and intellectual capacities necessary to do something about it. To borrow the words of Carter G. Woodson (1977), there is a “mis-education of Latinas/os,” in which their voices and potentialities to challenge an unjust world is suppressed by the consistent battery of standardized tests, rote learning, and curricular content that has little bearing on their everyday struggles as young people of color. Thus, the standard educational experience for young Latinas/os tends to submerge them into silence, where they are taught to be quiet and avoid independent and critical thinking. This is a dangerous lesson for them to learn, and it is dangerous for everyone. Young Latinas/os are the next generation that will signifi cantly change the composition of our society. And if they are encouraged to become silent adults, this new burgeoning majority will not have the capacity to effect social change that moves toward an egalitarian reality for all people. In this article, we present an educational model based on a critically compassionate intellectualism that can foster the liberation of Latinas/os as well as A Critically Compassionate Intellectualism for Latina/o Students: