{"id":1350,"date":"2018-02-09T14:49:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T21:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2018-02-09T14:55:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T21:55:21","slug":"dreamers-find-allies-among-their-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=1350","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dreamers\u2019 Find Allies Among Their Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe width=\"450\" height=\"254\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u5EnAwrMgpQ?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Teachers in California, where 270,000 undocumented Dreamer students reside, have quietly formed alliances with their students as tension mounts over their ability to stay in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>For the most part, these students were brought to this country as young children by parents who were fleeing war, civil strife, or poverty in Mexico or Central America.\u00a0 They have been raised as Americans, but despite widespread support for a pathway to legal residency and citizenship they now fear deportation following Donald Trump\u2019s announced intent to revoke the DACA program that gave them a legal toehold.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers are these students\u2019 first responders.\u00a0 They are there when kids break down in tears, when they have anxiety attacks, when they simply don\u2019t know what to do.\u00a0 The PBS Newshour told part of the story recently (video above).<\/p>\n<p>Last year, I watched as teachers from the Humanitas Social Justice Academy, in the Los Angeles Unified School District, sat in a circle around their former students who were now enrolled in UCLA.\u00a0 These are kids who did everything right.\u00a0 They studied hard, avoided teenage pitfalls, and gained admission to a highly selective university.\u00a0 And they were sobbing.\u00a0 In the middle of a public meeting, where they had gathered to talk about their high school experience, the emotional pressure of their clouded legal status brought them to the point of emotional collapse.\u00a0 They cried for themselves.\u00a0 They cried for their little sisters and brothers.\u00a0 They cried for their parents.<\/p>\n<p>They could cry in public because they knew that their teachers were with them.\u00a0 Some of the teachers <em>are<\/em> them: about <a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/capitalandmain\/for-teachers-who-are-daca-recipients-the-future-is-full-of-uncertainty-and-confusion?e=b8bc0b3920\">5,000 California teachers have DACA status<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, these teachers have a place to gather, learn, and gain support.\u00a0\u00a0 The Claremont Graduate University, where I am an emeritus professor, has started an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgu.edu\/academics\/program\/allies-of-dreamers\/\">\u201cAllies of Dreamers\u201d<\/a> certificate program for teachers.\u00a0 The program, \u201cseeks to fill the growing demand for trained individuals who are committed to ensuring undocumented students are protected, fully integrated into K\u201012 schools, and have the necessary support and preparation to access college and successfully transition to graduate school and the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The program is in major part the work of my colleague, Will Perez.\u00a0 He has chronicled the lives of the Dreamers, and his book <a href=\"https:\/\/sty.presswarehouse.com\/books\/BookDetail.aspx?productID=209281\"><em>We Are Americans<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>published a decade ago, is one of the foundational documents in understanding these students.\u00a0 And the fact that nothing has happened in a decade to address the situation of 2.7-million young people is testimony to the brokenness of our political system.<\/p>\n<p>Perez has also written about the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/on_california\/2014\/12\/deported_americans_products_of_californias_educational_system.html\">Dreamers who were deported<\/a>.\u00a0 These are kids who grew up American, who are now teenagers or young adults living in the land of their birth, which is not home but an alien place where they are not accepted or assisted.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m proud of the teachers who support the Dreamers, and I\u2019m proud to be a part of a university that is trying to help them.\u00a0 But couldn\u2019t we just get Congress to do something decent\u2026or failing that just get a different Congress?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teachers in California, where 270,000 undocumented Dreamer students reside, have quietly formed alliances with their students as tension mounts over their ability to stay in the United States. For the most part, these students were brought to this country as young children by parents who were fleeing war, civil strife, or poverty in Mexico or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1358,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}