Essential Questions of Public History
My school, Mt. Pleasant has played a role in the public history of Silicon Valley in a very public and interesting way. In 2010 Steve Poizner, a CEO of a tech company in the Valley and later a political aspirant, who ran for Governor of California – and lost, wrote a book about his experience teaching at my school and in the East Side community title Mount Pleasant. Poizner, spent a semester guest-lecturing at my school and his book chronicles his experiences and observations of teaching working class immigrants. The tone of the book, and controversy around the book relates to how he, being white and wealthy, voiced a stereotypical view of Latinos and of their community. Poizner sees the community only as full of vice, as he writes abut how he was relive to find his Lexus safe in the parking lot after his first visit. Another example, exposes his low expectation and poor understanding of the students. In the lesson he describes creating and teaching on corporate history. In another anecdote, he describes creating and teaching a lesson on corporate history by focusing on Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and its founder Col.
Sanders rather than of Steve Jobs and Apple because he felt KFC was more relevant to the students of Mt. Pleasant. His biases, which are not uncommon in the valley, see my students as “other” and not related to or having a place in Silicon Valley’s economy. He writes, “The school’s young people, whose w writing and backgrounds were foreign to me”22 points to his unwilling to see any connection between Silicon Vally and my students. Besides his use of the word “wirign”[Poizner’s example of students spelling of the word writing] as a way to highlight the students “otherness,” his lesson excluded his students from the discussion of the corporate history of Silicon Valley, which they are participants. It is paramount that the public history of the East Side be voiced by from the community; Martha Guerrero, Associate Principal, and community residence, is quoted in the Los Angles times saying, “It makes it hard for students who come from here to go out there, because there is a belief that if they come from here, they may not be good enough”.23 In other words the students and the school were the “object” of public history but not authors.
Thus students as examiners of their own history, a public history, grounded in both past and present histories can place the Poizer event within the context of the broader history of Silicon Valley. As public historian, Alan Gordon, states “that public memory is a product of competitions and ideas about the past that are fashioned in a public sphere and speak primarily about structures of power.”24
I have chosen two different types of vernacular architecture, César Chávez’s house and Steve Jobs’ childhood home, to reveal a narrative not only of Silicon Valley, but a more nuanced and inclusive narrative of Latinos in the development of the Santa Clara Valley from the “Valley of Hearts Delight” to “Silicon Valley”. Thus this narrative calls for a broader public history that illustrates and illuminates Silicon Valley’s complexities and is inclusive of all its people and uncovers the facade that resides over the history of Silicon Valley.
This unit aim is to switch the conversation from “others” speaking for my students, to them speaking for themselves. To help guide their shared memories into a coherent film and help them negotiate their place in this broader history, it is important to consider the following questions. First, “How did I arrive?" This question focuses on the stories that emerge from a historical analysis of each neighborhood, East Side and Los Altos. The next question builds upon public spaces, by asking what are the spaces and why are they there? The next question to ask is "What story does the place tell us at this time?” When answering this question students use primary sources, this helps students see the temporal landscape in Silicon Valley. The last question is, “What is my connection?” Students act, not only answering the underlying question but becoming active place-makers, as filmmakers in their community.
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