In Her Book, Con Respeto, Guadalupe Valdés Examines the Differing and Often Conflicting

In her book, Con Respeto, Guadalupe Valdés examines the differing and often conflicting values, expectations and goals that Mexican immigrant parents and largely white, mainstream American teachers hold, and the effects that these differences have on the Mexican children who often feel caught in the middle. She believes that schools and the families they serve must attempt to bridge the distances between them in order to help children succeed. Valdes presents a study of ten Mexican immigrant families, with a focus on mothers. The book’s conclusion questions the merit of typical family intervention programs designed to promote school success and suggests that these interventions may have long-term negative consequences for children.

“A discussion of the school failure of Mexican-origin students must be framed by a broader discussion that examines why other children who share similar backgrounds have also failed.”

“Bond’s 3 categories to explain poor academic achievement: 1) the genetic argument, 2) the cultural argument, and 3)the class analysis argument.”

“Persell’s (1977) four levels of analysis for understanding the difficulties surrounding the education of non-mainstream children: 1) the societal, 2) the institutional, 3) the interpersonal, and 4) the interpsychic.”

“Ogbu believes the question of why different groups of non-mainstream children succeed while others fail is answered within the tradition of the class analysis argument and in particular the economic-reproductive perspective.”

“…different ways of categorizing the Mexican-origin population (Matute-Bianchi proposes five categories, while Ogbu claims only 2).”

“Factors influencing the school achievement of Mexican-origin children: family income, family characteristics, language background, teacher/student interaction, school and class composition and school financing.”

“…researches and practitioners represent the tension existing between ‘the unequal hierarchies associated with the capitalist workplace’ and ‘the democratic values and expectations associated with the equality of access to citizen rights and opportunities.’”

“If teachers use the middle-class family as a standard, teachers will generally assume that all parents who are ‘committed to their children’s education’ will engage in the same kinds of activities and behaviors. They will often surmise quite erroneously that parents who do not do so are unsupportive of their children’s academic performance.”