About
Address2958 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. Telephone and faxOffice: (415) 648-1045 Fax: (415) 648-1046http://eltecolote.org/content/wp-admin/post.php?post=438&action=edit&message=1#post_status To submit a story idea or to inquire about volunteering on El Tecolote, contact the managing editor or call our office. StaffFounding Editor • Juan Gonzales Managing Editors: • Greg Zeman • Iñaki Fdez. de Retana (Spanish) • Alejandra Cuéllar (Spanish) Photo & Multimedia Editor • Mabel Jiménez Production Manager • Ryan Flores Advertising & Distribution Manager • Francisco Barradas Photo Archivist • Linda G. Wilson Web Editor • Atticus Morris Acción Latina, a 501(c)(3) organization, is the publisher of El Tecolote. Acción Latina’s mission is to create positive social change among Latinos and to build bridge with other communities on common causes. |
History
El Tecolote newspaper began as a project in a La Raza Studies class at San Francisco State University. Prof. Juan Gonzales created the class as a way to channel more Latinos into journalism. In the 1970s, Latinos and other people of color were virtually invisible in the major newsrooms.
As a final project, the class produced a bilingual newspaper called El Tecolote, which hit the streets on August 24, 1970. The newspaper soon moved to the community and became a training ground for the community to learn advocacy journalism.
El Tecolote began as a volunteer effort and continues in that vein with approximately 90 percent of the staff dedicated volunteers. It is the longest running Spanish/English bilingual newspaper in California.
The newspaper has played an important advocacy role in the community, taking up vital community issues often ignored by the mainstream news media. Some of these issues include:
In the early ’70s, El Tecolote conducted a two-year study of the 911 emergency hotline and found that it took an average of four minutes longer for Spanish speaking residents to get assistance. El Tecolote news coverage on the lack of bilingual operators combined with community activism resulted in hearings before the Public Utilities Commission.
In 1977, El Tecolote received complaints from several concerned workers at SF General Hospital regarding the lack of trained medical translators. El Tecolote’s consistent coverage helped to spread the word of this critical issue. Eventually, the State Department of Health investigated and issued the hospital a letter of non-compliance on bilingual services. Ten months after El Tecolote’s coverage began, the hospital established a bilingual unit with 26 interpreters trained in medical terminology.
El Tecolote has also played an important role in promoting the talents of Mission district artists. The Arts & Culture pages were often the first to cover local artists who are now nationally recognized. In 1971 the newspaper interviewed with Jose Santana, the proud father of the talented up-and-coming guitarist, Carlos Santana. El Tecolote first covered internationally renowned Latin jazz percussionist John Santos when he was arrested as a teenager in San Francisco’s Dolores Park for playing his conga drum too loudly. These are just two examples of a vast collection of articles that have recognized and promoted local talent.
Over the years the newspaper has published several special supplements, including a literary section (Revista Literaria) edited by local Latino writers, a youth publication (Fuerza Joven) — which provided training for neighborhood teens — and informational fotonovelas covering topics ranging from the 2010 census, youth depression, and domestic violence.
El Tecolote’s archives represent a historical record of Mission district activism and the social, political, cultural and economic development of the community since 1970.
Continuing the legacy
Today El Tecolote continues to provide original local news, portraying the diverse spectrum of Latino life.
El Tecolote is a proven pipeline for Latinos to enter the field of journalism. Several volunteers and interns who began their journalism experience at El Tecolote have gone on to full-time journalism careers in the mainstream media. They include Hector Tobar, former Mexico City bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times and others who work at the West Palm Beach Post, Sacramento Bee, San Diego Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Modesto Bee and the Center for Investigative Reporting. This role is especially important today when only 14 percent of the editorial staff in daily newsrooms is Latino and when urban high school journalism programs have disappeared due to budgetary cutbacks.
In addition to the online site, 10,000 free copies of El Tecolote are distributed every two weeks throughout the Mission District and the East Bay via restaurants, libraries, clinics and social service centers.
El Tecolote is a member of the San Francisco Neighborhood Newspaper Association, a group of 16 neighborhood-based newspapers, and a founding member of New America Media, a national network of ethnic news media.
El Tecolote truly is a community institution. Help keep El Tecolote alive. Donate.
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I photographed the Encuentro on Saturday 12/3 – Mabel Jimenez said she was interested in seeing my photos and possibly use them. I have finished processing the photos. If Mable is still interested in seeing them, she needs to contact me and tell me what form the photos should be in.
Why Jose and Maria Can’t Read.
By George Davis
(415) 722-2968
These are some observations are based on my experiences with the San Francisco educational policies and procedures as a teacher’s aide at Marshall Elementary School in 2010 and various tutoring programs in the San Francisco School District, The Boys and Girls Clubs in San Francisco, and the Pirate Store (826 Valencia St.).
A little background on myself: I come from a family with business backgrounds. At a very early age, my grandmother made me aware of the limitations and goals of the Prussian Education System. I still went through the public school system and graduated college. I went to college mostly, believe it or not, because my family never had a college graduate member before. Some of the family were very successful business people and wanted to see me finish college. They paid for my apartment, tuition, and a generous living allowance. Immediately out of college, I was an 8th grade teacher (full-time substitute credential). After teaching a year, I was more interested in going into business than getting a teaching credential.
I married a few times. After all, I am a Californian. I did raise 5 children (2 biologicals, 1 stepdaughter, and 2 nieces). Four of the five children graduated college. The high school dropout daughter runs her own business and may be the smartest of the lot.
Nowadays, I have enough passive income that I can pick and chose projects and volunteer activities that interest me. About two years ago, I moved into the Mission District (largely Hispanic neighborhood) of San Francisco. Since I was there and I go to Mexico a couple of times a year, I thought that I could improve my Spanglish. (It’s a long story. I can read Spanish newspapers, but I cannot speak or write the language.)
My original thoughts (still my current thoughts) were to find a Hispanic youth and exchange my tutoring English and schoolwork subjects for their tutoring me in Spanish. My belief was that for the youth it would build their self-esteem and educational involvement to teach a difficult student like myself. If the youth was more involved, they would learn more material quicker. That’s how education was practiced before the establishment of state curriculum schools. Even one room school houses made use of older students teaching the younger students. I asked around but none of my friends knew any prospective students for me to tutor.
Many people suggested that I volunteer at a local school. I investigated the public school tutoring program. I was told that involved pulling a student out of class, working with them for half an hour, and sending them back. I would not be allowed to work in Spanish. That seemed too mechanical to me. So, I thought that I would check out being a volunteer aide. I attended the volunteer orientation seminar, got fingerprinted, and TB checked. I volunteered at a Marshall Elementary School 5th grade class, which is two blocks from my home, for 3 hrs/day for 3 days/week. Marshall has a bilingual Spanish/English immersion program. Most of the students are of Hispanic background. At this point in their development, their “playground English” was pretty decent, but for most, their academic English achievement was behind their peers elsewhere in the State of California. The experience of being at Marshall really made me question what is going on in the San Francisco and American education system.
On the upside, the Marshall classroom and school facilities were as nice and well supplied as any elementary school that I have ever seen. The teacher was a pleasant guy who kept pretty decent control of the students, certainly better than I could of. The class was well supplied with teacher aides and parent volunteers. The adult/student ratio was frequently 10:1, even though some of that was inflated by student absenteeism.
On the downside, by far, the biggest problem was student boredom and apathy. This was evidenced by high absenteeism, massive and chronic tardiness, incomplete homework, and student mind drift. Remember. I hadn’t been in a grade school class for over 40 years. I found it easy to empathize with the students. Like the students, I found the course material boring. Worse, I didn’t have their pleasure of the friendship bonds of schoolmates to help me endure. So, what does an intellectual like me do? Right, he tries to analyze the situation. The American education here and everywhere else is based on the Prussian Education system which does not teach independent and creative thinking.
For those unfamiliar with the Prussian Education System, it was and continues to be a system of mandatory education dating from the early 19th Century where the school becomes way more influential than the parent or the child’s own will. The Prussian System instituted tax supported schools, compulsory attendance, state curriculum for each grade, specific training/credentials for teachers, and national testing of students for future job training or educational advancement. Autodidactic learning becomes difficult because whole ideas are broken into fragmented subjects and the school days are broken up into arbitrary periods. The schools impose an official language (German in Prussia and English in America to create a conforming national state and extinguish nonconforming ethnic groups.) The Prussian Education goal is to train people for unquestioned obedience and loyalty to the state, school or corporation. The famous quote from Johann Fichte, an early Prussian School System innovator was: “The schools must fashion the person, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will.” In other words, the Prussian System defines for the child what is to be learned, what is to be thought about, how long to think about it and when a child is to think about something else. In other words, it’s a system of dumbing down people and thought/mind control. Originally, the end goal was to train unquestioning soldiers and civil administrators. As the industrial state developed in America and Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, the capitalist class also found having workers that will unquestionably do what they are told from 9to5 very desirable.
This is the Education System at Marshall Elementary and every other public and private school that I know of. The students at Marshall have an extra burden of speaking a widely spoken language (Spanish), both in their neighborhood and their home countries. Most students’ families still have strong ties with their home countries due to today’s relatively inexpensive telecommunications and transport. My children, being of Asian and Eurasian decent, have given me some insight into the elementary schools in Chinatown. The Chinese families seem to be more dedicated to English-only public school instruction with Chinese language/writing instruction being relegated to extra-curricular private Chinese schools. I suspect that has a lot to do with the better academic performance of Chinatowns to Hispanic barrios. But, at the end of the day, the Chinese students are still dumbed down too.
The Prussian Education System is not the only way to go. In Elizabethan England, an estimated 75% of the population was literate. In Revolutionary America and the early 19th century, an estimated 80% of the population was literate. The students, to a large degree, had to teach themselves how to learn. Also, older and more experienced students taught other students. My understanding is that we are entering an age where the average American will have over seven different careers over their lifetime. Wouldn’t it be better if students had the skills to learn on their own and the ability to start a business or profession instead of looking to work for someone? Wouldn’t it be better, if students were capable of more independent thought?
I may be getting tangential, but the stratified San Francisco School System barriers to my proposed tutoring exchange with a Hispanic youth inspired this essay. After being a teacher’s aide, I investigated tutoring at the Pirate Store, 826 Valencia St. which has an after school literacy program. They would not allow a tutored English/Spanish language exchange. I investigated a couple of independent literacy programs that are affiliated with the San Francisco School District. They also would not allow a language exchange. I contacted the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco. They also would not allow a language exchange. All of them wanted an adult mentor that will just teach what he is told to teach to a bored student who gets this treatment all day long.
Really! There are better ways for Jose, Maria, John, Mary, Peter and Paul to learn than what I have observed.