Stanley Spatz responds to California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum

To the Editors:

It seems that the California product described in Isaac Hart’s article, “Beating, Not Joining, Ethnic Studies,” is less a curriculum and more a manifesto.

Before one learns about other cultures, one should at least understand—if not thoroughly identify with—one’s own culture. A Jewish student should know his own story before being exposed to multiculturalism, not just for protection against campus antisemitism, but to have a standard against which to critically analyze other cultures and other values. Similarly, students should know (all) American history and what American values are before being exposed to other, often hostile, systems and values. Alas, public education seems to have different priorities.