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Professor Manuel Hernández Essays Collection Email: mannyh32@puertoricans.com Website http://www.geocities.com/mannyh32/ or http://www.editorialplazamayor.com/autores/manuel_hernandez.htm http://groups.yahoo.com/group/latinoliterature (Yahoogroup for the discussion of literature and education) For additional: HC-O1, Box 8552, Luquillo, Puerto Rico 00773 or e-mail. mannyh32@puertoricans.com Dec 6, 2007 -New Book Presentation - The Birth of a Rican - By Manuel Hernandez-Carmona

Latino/a Literature Seminars

Manuel Hernandez has given seminars on how to integrate Latino/a Literature in the English Classroom in cities across the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico. He is willing to visit your school, community center, corporation and institution and share his view on this new literature. The literature can serve as a bridge for further literary analysis and can help students improve their scores on city, national and state testing requirements.
(Click here for curriculum vitae)

A Gateway to Latino Education: Vouchers

by Manuel Hernández

Most Latinos believe that improving the American system of
education is a top priority for their families. One attempt to
facilitate the education of our children and rescue children from
failing school systems, especially those in inner-city neighborhoods are
school voucher programs. The program proposed in states across the
United States of America would distribute vouchers to parents, usually
in inner-city school districts. Parents could then use the vouchers to
pay for the cost of tuition at private schools of their choice. After a
period of tentative receptiveness, Latinos and vouchers have finally
found a personal connection and are walking together and gaining solid
ground amongst its participants.
Instead of taking sides in the debate and discussions on the
issue, Latinos support public education and school vouchers because they
feel they have been underserved by the educational system and are
seeking strategies to improve the education of their children. The
cultural diversity and political savyness within the Latino population
have paved the way for the program and have enhanced the alternatives of
Latino children. According to recent statistics, close to 60 percent of
Latino children graduate from high school. While the percentage has
steadily augmented during the last few years, there are still less
Latinos in college today when compared to other student populations.
Vouchers are depicted as a getway and a window of opportunites for many
American Latinos.
In the state of Florida, 27% of the school population is taking
advantage of the voucher programs. While critics view the program as an
interference between state and church, others simply see it as a tool
to get into small neighborhood schools where academics, values and
respect are raised a notch further. For our children to make progress in
higher education registration, it is imperative that our children
receive the educational opportunities that in the past have not been
available to them.
Latinos have gained degree levels in the past, but they continue
to remain underrepresented in colleges and universities throughout
America. We are 13% of the American population but are 6% of those able
to obtain a bachelor’s degree. As one of the blessed to complete a
graduate degree, I am aware of the social, cultural, financial and
academic hardships found in the “road less traveled” (Robert Frost). It
takes great character, pride and “sheer will” (Isaiah Thomas) to
overcome the barriers and defy the odds when completing a higher
education degree. As I left a wife, a newborn son and a job to embark on
a seven-week intensive training to complete two papers in-lieu of
thesis, I wondered how difficult it must have been for the thousands of
other Latinos just like me. As an advocate of public school education, I
myself was entrapped in my own self-pride when I first heard of the
innovative voucher program, but I am also an advocate of educational
choices.
In a world of uncertainites, Latinos have aligned themselves
with opportunities. Vouchers are an opportunity of educational growth,
and there is a demand among Latinos for educational choices. We Latinos
have understood the value of politics, work, culture, religion and
family but now we are understanding the value of education. One of the
greatest assets of the American way of life is equality. Vouchers are
another door opened in the road to democracy. The voucher program is
best reflected in Irving Krsitol’s following quotation “Democracy does
not gurantee equality of conditions-it only guarantees equality of
opportunity” (Good Quotations by Famous People: collected by Gabe
Robbins over the years)

Manuel Hernandez, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com), lives in Puerto Rico where he teaches school. He has a B.A. and MA Teaching English. He is candidate for a PhD. He has just published a textbook titled, Latino/a Literature in The English Classroom (Editorial Plaza Mayor, 2003). For more information, e-mail him at mannyh32@puertoricans.com For school orders, go to www.editorialplazamayor.com for more information or call 787-764-0455 For a complete bibliography: email me at mannyh32@puertoricans.com