State Guidelines Urge New Views in History Classes : Education: In a revamped curriculum, teachers are encouraged to use letters, diaries, newspapers, photographs and art as alternatives to textbooks.

This year, Newport Beach third-graders in Jean Rocchio’s class will learn about Mexican Gen. Mariano Vallejo, who was awakened in the middle of the night and captured peacefully by rebels who eventually brought on the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846.

Students will find themselves reading personal accounts of people who lived on the ranchos of California after Mexico won its independence from Spain and about immigrants today who leave their countries for a better life in the United States.

The lessons are part of new history and social studies curriculum guidelines in place this fall for California students in kindergarten through high school.

While new textbooks by Houghton Mifflin Co. include the perspectives of many non-European cultures, scholars are paying particular attention to how Latino history is presented in the books because Latinos are the state’s largest ethnic minority.

The state’s guidelines suggest the use of many sources--letters, diary excerpts, newspaper articles, photographs and art--not traditionally included in textbooks. Teachers also will have their students act out historical events.

“The textbooks are not the whole program,” said Rocchio, who is beginning her 32nd year of teaching. “The old textbooks might have been an easy way for the kids to read and answer questions, but the new framework calls for using the textbooks as one resource.”

For instance, Amy Sperber’s fifth-grade class at Stone Creek Elementary School in Irvine will read from the book “Barrio Boy” by Ernesto Galarza. The main character, a boy traveling with his family from Mexico by train through Arizona to Sacramento in the early 1900s, notes people and things he sees along the way.

“The lessons are introduced on a more personal level, and every lesson begins a different way,” Sperber said. “In the process of studying the U.S., it’s true we always think about the 13 U.S. colonies, but while that was going on, Mexico was in control of California and Texas. Now (the lesson is), ‘Look what richness we have in our country because of Mexico’s influence in California and Texas.’ ”

The state guidelines for each discipline, such as math or history, are overhauled every seven years, so part of the reason for the changed framework was simply the scheduled review of textbooks. However, teacher demands, changing demographics and criticism of the way history has been taught in the schools also influenced how the new guidelines were formed.

“This (new) framework is a radical departure from the past,” said Chuck Staneart, the history and social science consultant for the Orange County Department of Education.

Teachers will be going through training in the next few months to become familiar with the framework and its suggested use of outside sources and different teaching methods, Staneart said.

Rocchio said teachers wanted information more relevant to their students, whose ethnic makeup has changed dramatically over the years. California’s Latino population grew from 19.2% in 1980 to 25.8% in 1990, according to the U.S. census. In Orange County, the Latino population grew from 14.8% to 23.4% during the same period.

Scholars and other critics say textbook information on Mexico and other Latin American countries and their people is distorted or disregarded.

In an article this summer in Mexican Studies, a journal published by the University of California Press, two professors found negative images, patronizing attitudes and historical distortions of Mexico and Latin America in a nationwide study of textbooks for grades K through 12.

According to the study by UC Riverside Prof. Carlos E. Cortes and University of Wisconsin, Parkside, Prof. Gerald Michael Greenfield, “portrayals of Mexico appear seriously flawed.” Even when textbook authors tried to promote cultural understanding, stereotypes remained, the study found.

Teachers agree that students have not received enough historical information about Latino and other cultures. Bookshelves in Rocchio’s Room 15 at Newport Elementary School are stocked with stories on Native American tribes, Mexicans, Cubans, African-Americans and others. At the recent 23rd Annual Powwow at the Orange County Fairgrounds, Rocchio bought storybooks and tapes of music to play for her class.

“What we’re hoping is that the (teachers) won’t use textbooks as just the sole source,” Rocchio said. “The new textbook will show several points of view, and I’m sure there are many points of view that aren’t even included in the new textbook.”

Diversifying sources of information is the key to creating better textbooks, Cortes said in a telephone interview. In addition to studying textbooks for their portrayals of Latinos, Cortes has consulted with textbook publishers. He has also written an essay on teaching about ethnic diversity.

He believes that textbooks have a long way to go to accurately portray Latinos in history.

“Still the biggest problem of including ethnic cultures and foreign nations in history textbooks is getting to the point where you can see those events through the eyes of other people, as well as the eyes of (Anglo Americans),” he said.

In the example of the U.S-Mexican War, most texts describe the major events that led to the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which gave the United States the territory that included California. But Cortes believes that the texts should also describe in detail how the people who had lived in the area were affected by such things as a new form of government, an influx of people to the area, having their land divided and taken, and other consequences of the war.

“If (textbooks) are going to be fully successful, that’s what they will do, but it’s going to be another couple of decades” before that happens, Cortes said.

Bob Schaal, an eighth-grade teacher at Kraemer Junior High School in Placentia, says that the new textbooks are not much different from the old ones in the way that historical events are described. For instance, he said the war with Mexico in 1836 that led to the Battle of the Alamo is presented generally from the U.S. point of view. It is up to the teachers to supplement that account with other materials, he said.

“The textbooks are not always as accurate as we’d like them to be,” he said.

Nevertheless, the new texts are better than those used just 20 years ago, Cortes said. “I think it’s a major step forward in terms of the integration of the ethnic perspectives, but it could be better,” he said.

One of the weak spots of the new framework is that it is based on blocks of time in each school year, Schaal said. For example, Schaal’s class will cover U.S. history events from the signing of the U.S. Constitution to the Civil War. He must depend on teachers in previous grades to have taught about Christopher Columbus and the American Revolution so his lessons about later events will make sense to the students.

“You will not see a product of this curriculum for actually 12 years,” Schaal said.

Another effect of the new guidelines is that teaching history proceeds at a slower pace, allowing teachers to spend more time on certain eras. But chances are greater that a student will not hear much about certain topics, such as Mexico, during certain grades, he said.

And even though textbook information is generally unchanged, teachers following the new framework now will ask students questions such as why Mexico wanted to attract people to Texas after it won its independence from Spain in 1822, what were the effects of Mexico outlawing slavery and what was the impact the Mexican Revolution had on the region.

The approach in the new guidelines “is a lot more thorough, and it does present a lot more viewpoints and allow (students) to see that there are multiple views,” Sperber said.

LATINO VOICES: Classical ballet dancer Patricia Corzano brings her art to her community. B3