Hispanic Culture … parts six and seven
PART SIX: How Hispanics can Fail
For Hispanics to not take advantage of the greater opportunities opening up for college-educated bilingual, bicultural individuals, they will have to:
- Shoot themselves in the foot by having limited interest in making any adjustments necessary to fit into American corporate culture.
- Have more-out-of-wedlock children.
- Not read with their children, instead shooing them away to a television set or computer or tablet or smartphone, in effect training them to be clickers on short attention span digital devices providing instant information gratification.
- Buy into “entitlement” as the basis for achieving progress.
- Disrespect long-time citizens who believe there is room for reasonable differences of opinion on the specifics of immigration reform, while simultaneously knowing that neither more walls nor open borders are logically part of said reform
- Learn minimal English.
Or maybe, instead of “failure,” there could be a change in the metric of “success,” where it shifts from economic stability and generational upward mobility, which are measurable, to something approximating “happiness.” (The little known country of Bhutan measures this concept with something called “Gross National Happiness.”) Perhaps many Latinos will shun the stress associated with financial advancement and be satisfied with “just enough,” in which case their importance in the country’s apparent economic position will be understated.
On the negative side politically, reactionary steps taken by a white power structure obviously cannot be dismissed as an ongoing obstacle to Latino progress. If substantive, the result of this obstruction would be continued growth in the underground or shadow economy, which statistically would also obscure Latino progress.
Part Seven will provide the results of a professionally-done survey of high school and college graduates concerning a long list of educational matters. The responses weave in and out of many of the points made in the above parts of this series.
| PART SEVEN: A table with a wealth of inputs for the family discussion about higher education. | ||
| Source: The Delta Project survey: One Degree of Separation | ||
| Survey Questions | Answers from High School Graduates | Answers from College Graduates |
| Is college necessary for success: % answering Yes | 40% | 55% |
| What is the leading factor behind success in college/work? | ||
| Being persistent, inner drive | 38% | 38% |
| Dealing well with people | 23% | 21% |
| College degree | 19% | 13% |
| Connections | 18% | 26% |
| “Very likely” response to the question: Will the following become financially secure? | ||
| College graduate, goes on to graduate school | 68% | 75% |
| The respondent | 36% | 55% |
| State university college student | 35% | 34% |
| High school graduate becomes an apprentice | 36% | 29% |
| Someone who enlists in the military | 33% | 27% |
| Student not in college, has wealthy parents | 30% | 25% |
| Has one-year technical school certificate | 26% | 14% |
| Associates degree from Community college | 26% | 14% |
| “Strongly agree” response questions: | ||
| Colleges should help students to complete their degrees | 58% | 50% |
| Even if someone has to take a loan, college is worth it | 37% | 54% |
| There are more jobs for Associate’s degree-holders than
for those with a High School diploma |
30% | 39% |
| On-line colleges are as good as regular colleges | 22% | 15% |
| Students have to borrow too much money for college | 63% | 52% |
| Employers hire graduates for jobs doable without a degree | 35% | 24% |
| Almost anyone who needs financial aid can get it | 26% | 26% |
| Society has made college more important than it really is | 30% | 18% |
| Can the majority of those qualified attend college | 25% | 39% |
| Colleges are businesses and care mainly about money | 71% | 65% |
| Colleges mainly care about education | 25% | 33% |
| The students are mostly to blame for low graduation rates | 24% | 32% |
| The high schools are to blame | 7% | 12% |
| The parents are to blame | 8% | 9% |
| The government is to blame | 7% | 7% |
| Colleges are to blame | 6% | 6% |
HISPANIC CULTURE THROUGH A WHITE LENS …. concluding comments
I know that some will equate certain responses in the Part Seven table, and certain of my comments as well, as representing degrees of forced assimilation with “white culture/power.” Phrased in such a manner, it is a slippery slope to the tag of “selling out,” a negative to those who subscribe to the thesis that assimilation is somewhat a war of cultures, rather than an attempt by a person/family to make peace in an environment they did not create and where their political influence is less than their representation in the population.
As an important side note, looking ahead, there should be a leveraged impact in the Hispanic community when it comes to politics: the number eligible to vote will rise and the percentage of those eligible who do vote should rise as well. The collateral benefit should be a stronger connection of Hispanic parents to the educational process, at every level. This would be good news for Latino students and for society.
In the meantime, consistent with the desire for more proactive/individual responsibility, I believe there are many mini-steps which the Latino student should be taking. He does not have to wait for an inversion of political power. He can simultaneously be an advocate for change while preparing himself for the workplace, for the career he wants as a means to the end of having a productive and happy life. What he should not do is deliberately forego incremental education because the professor and/or the institution represents a power structure that is under challenge.
Spontaneity, an enviable trait in many instances, must nonetheless be secondary to intentionality when it comes to aspirations. Leaving aside the longer-term challenges in creating a life, establishing a family, and pursuing a career, it is not possible for a person to complete high school with sufficient academic preparation for college, and then enroll and graduate, while simply making a series of in-this-moment decisions.
Maybe my individualistic point of view is too much of an American culture hang-up. Ultimately, though, it is the individual – yes, aided and abetted and loved by those around him – who must envision the future, plan, flex, ask for help, negotiate the shoals, and persevere. Only then can he or she walk to the stage for their diploma.