History in Our Everyday Lives

Rationale, My School

Mt. Pleasant High School opened in 1965 and this year celebrated its 50th anniversary. The school is located on the far edge of Silicon Valley in an area known as the East Side. This area of San José includes the largest neighborhoods of working class Mexican and Mexican Americans in San José, the 10th largest city in the U.S. Mexican settlement into this area began in the 1920s with large populations of migration beginning in the 1950s. These neighborhoods lacked basic development and government services; roads remained unpaved, streetlights or public parks were sparse. The neighborhoods surrounding my school have a proud history of struggle and resistance, but this history has been mostly forgotten or neglected as the mythology of Silicon Valley has evolved.

The East Side has at times been on the front line in the struggle for political representation by its Latino population. In 1967 students from Roosevelt Junior High School walked out of school to address issues of racism and discrimination, and by the late 1970s, students and community supporters from W. C. Overfelt High School led a march down Story Road, a major thoroughfare connecting the East Side to central San José, demanding the inclusion of Mexican-American History courses and more instructors of color. The National Association of Farm Workers organized boycotts in front of the White Road Safeway grocery store for selling grapes by non-union farm workers. These actions in the 1960’s & 70’s were public demands for political inclusion, improved living, working, and environmental conditions and for better educational opportunities.⁷

The statistics still show a community that is predominately Latino, significantly underfunded and in need of city and state resources. For the 2013-2014 school year, the school of more than 1,500 students was 72% Latino, 10% Filipino, 5% Vietnamese, 4% White, other Asian 4%; 3% are African American. Over 60% of the student body is classified as English Language Learners and more than 50% of our students qualify for the free or reduced meal program, even though more would qualify if they declared their income, but these families do not complete the paperwork due to their immigration status.⁸

Currently Latinos’ educational outcomes are lower than other ethnic groups in Silicon Valley. Latinos are far behind others on math proficiency assessments in particular. The college readiness rate of Latino high school graduates is about half of non-Latinos.

Overall, about half of non-Latinos old enough to be working have a Bachelors degree or higher, but only about fifteen percent of Latinos can say the same.⁹ A demographic change is coming, a shift that will define Silicon Valley. Today’s Latino population is younger than every other ethnic and racial group and is projected to be the single largest ethnic group in the region.¹⁰

My students are more than the statistics mentioned above; they are dedicated, creative and inquisitive, and they are striving to overcome poverty and racism in order to forge better lives for themselves and their families. They come to Mt. Pleasant HS, the only governmental institution within walking distance and see the school as a rock within the community and as a safe place that supports them. Our school parents are by and large immigrants themselves, and they trust our institution to do more than educate their children. In fact, they look to us to teach their children how to navigate and succeed in this new environment. I am proud to say that I am grateful to be teaching at Mt. Pleasant, and my hope is to give my students a voice and a platform to tell their stories and their histories. So far, through partnerships such as Adobe Youth Voices, an organization dedicated to supporting youth, the films my students create have had an international platform. This unit will nurture and empower my students, creating a new vision, one that is inclusive for all in Silicon Valley.