Intelligence Testing of Ethnic Minority Children - Essay Example

Intelligence Testing of Ethnic Minority Children Intelligence Testing of Ethnic Minority Children The relationship between a person’s race and their intelligence has been debated for a long time now. There have been notable differences in the result of IQ tests taken by different races. However, there has never been evidence to prove that this difference exists. There are many psychologists that have contributed allot towards the understanding of the difference in the performance of individuals in IQ tests, in relation to their races. One of such psychologists is George I. Sanchez. Intelligence Testing of Ethnic Minority Children is one of the books by George I. Sanchez, through which he contributed to the field of psychology. This paper aims at historical contributions in the area of sociology, psychology and education. Biography 1. Childhood Jorge Sánchez was born in a Albuquerque town, New Mexico on the 4th of October 1906. At the childhood stage of life, his family frequently moved between Arizona and Albuquerque. The frequent movement was as a result of his father’s career as a miner of both gold and copper. The place that they lived at for long during his childhood was Jerome in Arizona. Jerome is a ghost town which was at that time commonly known as Clarks copper mining town. During his childhood, he experienced people being subjected to inhuman treatment by a single industrial capitalist this capitalist subjected miners to constant suffering without even considering their agony. His family relocated back to Albuquerque after mining activities were discontinued at Jerome in the year 1921. 2. Educational background He attended an integrated school that had a mixture of Mexican, Anglo, Italian, Slavic, and children from other ethnic communities in Europe. It is believed that such an experience must have helped in shaping the ability of Sanchez to be of service to the public through the advocating for the end of racial discrimination. Sanchez attained his secondary school education while at Albuquerque. While in high school, he was involved in numerous activities including dance promotions, jazz orchestras, and professional boxing. He graduated from high school when he was sixteen years old and immediately started his teaching career at a place that was a distance of about 65 miles from where his parents lived. He enrolled for admission at the University of New Mexico when he was seventeen years old. Because of his teaching career, he only went to university in the summer months. Sanchez finally graduated with honors in the year 1930. He then left New Mexico to go attend graduate school at the University of Texas. His primary interests in academics were educational evaluation and testing. After the completion of his master degree program at the University of Texas, he joined the graduate program in administration of education at the University of California. 3. Career highlights In the year 1940, Sanchez published his first book, “Forgotten People” that turned out to be among his best works. This was the first book to make use of sociological means in the documentation of the experiences and concerns of New Mexicans. In this book, he criticized the notion of romanticizing the people from New Mexico. This is because this notion in most cases ignores the high poverty rates in this country. In this book, he also challenges the government of the United States of America to take care of the basic needs of people from New Mexico. He argues that these people have been highly loyal to the United States of America. In the year 1940, he was also invited to hold a position as a professor at the University of Texas in the city of Texas. He accepted the offer and started duties immediately. He made history by becoming the first professor of Latin America Studies at the University of Texas. He later served as the chairman at the university’s Department of History and Psychology. In the same year that he was offered a job at the University of Texas, he was also elected as the national president of LULAC. LULAC is the primary organization that fights for the rights of Latinos in the United States of America. Challenges confronted by George Sanchez Looking at the fact that Sanchez had to work during the period he was undertaking his college education, someone can easily conclude that he must have had it rough when going through college level education. When he came to the United States of America as a student of the university he faced various incidents of discrimination as a result of the fact that he was an American Latino. This must have made his life through University level education very challenging. The hard time must have been as a result of the discrimination that he was subjected to while at the university (Ramsey & Palgrave Connect 2010). Such discriminations come as a result of stereotypes that tend to mislead people in the United States of America that people from the New Mexico are intellectually inferior. In his profession as a specialist in bilingual education and mental measurements, he often had it rough trying to prove his credibility. This was specifically very true for the period before being famous for being a critic of discrimination against New Mexican in the United States of America. Because of his advocacy for the equality of races, he must have rubbed shoulders with influential Anglo Americans. Being a person from a race that was considered to be intellectually inferior, it took him longer to bring ideas to the public, and to have them being viewed as acceptable and applicable. Major Contributions and Historical Importance Shaping of Mexican-American inequality legal issues Throughout his professional life Sanchez contributed in many in shaping legal issues concerning Latin Americans in the United States of America. He was involved in such processes as an expert witness, witness, or advisor in legal cases regarding the fair treatment of Mexican Americans in the United States of America. As a result of his involvement, there was an evident change in the way Mexican Americans were treated in the United States of America. He wrote various research papers that were in many cases used as references in such cases. It never occurred to people that there will come a time that Anglo Americans would be treated equally to the minority races such as Mexican Americans (Gross, 2008). But it is as a result of the struggle of people like Sanchez that think like racial equality has turned into reality in the United States of America. There are two legal cases that are commonly used as historic landmarks for the historical contribution of Sanchez to the rights of the Mexican Americans. The first of the two legal cases was that of Delagado vs Gracy of 1948. This case led to the adoption of a formal policy by the state board that opposed discrimination of Mexican-American children in schools because they had Spanish surnames. The Texas State Board of Education for a formal policy gave much of the credit to the contribution that was made by Sanchez and Gustavo Garcia to the adoption of this policy. Gustavo Garcia was a lawyer by profession. The second case was that of Hernandez vs. Texas in the year 1954 (Sánchez, 1995). This was the first legal case where an individual was challenging the rights of Mexican-Americans in the United States of America. This case was decided in favor of the plaintiff. The lead attorneys in this gave maximum credit to Sanchez for having set the theoretical basis through which they had based this case. Sanchez’ writings and contribution to Mexican-American Education Sanchez’ contribution to education also came through his writing abilities. He wrote a number of books that have been used United States of America schools. Apart from writing he also contributed to education when he was a member of the board of editorial for national schools. He also acted as a consultant for the National Manpower Council, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Navajo Tribal Council, the United States Department of the Interior, and the United States Office of Education. During this period, he was able to give the best of his knowledge to serve Mexican-Americans in the United States of America. The books that he wrote include books such as “Intelligence Testing of Ethnic Minority Children” and “Forgotten People.” Apart from these books he also wrote several papers and research paper which are up to this day used in the USA (Davis, 2005). As a result of the above mentioned involvements, Sanchez was able to make sure that education system of United States of America was changed to be fair to Mexican-Americans in the United States of America. Even Latin Americans who live in the United States of America today still benefit from the involvement of Sanchez in the Education sector (Blanton & Southern Historical Association 2006). Being a member of all these boards enabled him to influence the changes in the education system of America which can be seen today. The papers and book that he wrote are being used in various fields. They have been used in law, psychology, and sociology. These books and papers are also used in education institution in the United States of America in the fields mentioned herein and history. Human rights activism Apart from using his writings Sanchez also involved himself actively in the fight for the rights of Mexican-Americans in the United States of America. It is recorded that he fearlessly fought for equalization of funds given to schools. This is an area he was very successful in. He began these activities back at the University of New Mexico. He continued with this course even after landing the Job at the University of Texas. While at the University of Texas, he fought for equal opportunities for Latin American children in the United States of America. During this period, he fought against common and standardized tests, discrimination faced by Hispanic school going children, and discrimination based on not being fluent in English. He was able to achieve this because he was working through various organizations which he used as vessels for making these grievances known by the relevant authorities. His success in fighting for equal treatment of school going Latin children would not have been successful without these organizations. With such contributions, Sanchez was able to see to it that Mexican American children are accorded equal rights just like the Anglo-American children. The pressure that was exerted on the relevant authorities was sufficient to make them want to change the education system and make it less discriminative. A good example of such historic changes came as a result of the case of Hernandez vs. Texas. This was a case in which an individual was successful in making the court give orders against discriminative treatment of a Mexican American in the state of Texas. This marked a landmark of the beginning of a string of changes which eventually led to the equality that is being enjoyed by Mexican-Americans in the United States of America today (Gross, 2008). The benefit was not only for the Mexican-American but, it was also for the other minority ethnic groups in the United States of America. Conclusion It is clearly evident that the contributions of to education sociology and psychology can never be ignored. The main reason behind his importance is the fact that he helped people develop from a time in history when racial and ethnic inequality was the order of the day in the United States of America. George Sanchez can be described as an individual who not only fought for his own equal treatment but for the equal treatment of all Mexican-Americans in the United States of America. In the process of undertaking this research, someone is able to enhance their information analyzing and synthesizing skills. Such skills are doubtlessly going to be essential in their careers as psychologists. They will be able to appreciate the racial and ethnic differences in the United States of America and the developments that led to the equalities experienced today. References Blanton, C. K., & Southern Historical Association. (2006). George I. Sanchez, ideology, and whiteness in the making of the Mexican American civil rights movement, 1930-1960. Athens, Ga: Southern Historical Association. Davis, M. D. (2005). Exposing a culture of neglect: Herschel T. Manuel and Mexican American schooling. Greenwich, Conn: Information Age Publ. Gross, A. J. (2008). What blood wont tell: A history of race on trial in America. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Ramsey, P. J., & Palgrave Connect (2010). Bilingual public schooling in the United States: A history of Americas "polyglot boardinghouse". New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Sánchez, G. J. (1995). Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, culture, and identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. New York [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press. Read More