‘Clipping Their Own Wings’ holds Latino Culture accountable for lackluster Educational Performance.

In his controversial new book, “Clipping Their Own Wings,” author Ernesto Caravantes tackles one of the nation’s most troubling trends and toughest social problems: Latino underachievement, and focuses the root of the problem squarely on the shoulders of the Latino culture itself. Hispanics are now, officially, the largest minority population with 35 million living in the U.S., exceeding African Americans in number. Despite the sizeable numbers, this minority group is doing poorly in education.

For the past 40 years, the average number of Hispanic high-school dropouts has been more than twice what it has been for African Americans. These dismal numbers are encrusted deep within the identity politics of educators, policymakers and other influencers, despite their compassionate attempts to empower Latinos with Chicano studies and bilingual education.

For the past 40 years, the average number of Hispanic high-school dropouts has been more than twice what it has been for African Americans

Caravantes defies conventional wisdom, shattering notions that Latino underachievement is due exclusively to underfunded schools and overcrowded classrooms, coupled with socioeconomic disadvantages common to this group. Caravantes does not entirely dispute these causal factors, but instead argues that Latinos are contributing to their own oppression by stubbornly refusing to learn English and devaluing the importance of education.

The book dares to say what no one else has dared to say about the Latino culture. Caravantes claims, “Hispanics are lagging behind as a result of ignorantly and stubbornly adhering to cultural aspects that do not place education at the top of its values hierarchy and instead, are clipping their own wings by refusing to assimilate into the American educational system.” Unless Latinos rethink these values and consider change, no amount of money, books or happy talk will make a dent in the problem.

This book, in the hands of the right people in both educational and legislative circles, can make a major contribution to calling attention to the real and ignored problem of educational complacency and apathy in a culture which clearly doesn’t understand that education is the key to a brighter future.

Ernesto Caravantes is a native Angeleno who grew up in Lakewood, CA, the only son of Mexican immigrants.