It turns out that American students have something in common with their Latin American counterparts: They don’t learn anything good about America either.
“In Latin America children are often exposed to the negative aspects of American history but are seldom exposed to the negative aspects of their own history,” Alejandro Chafuen of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation said at the Philadelphia Society’s regional meeting in Indianapolis last weekend.
Chafuen himself hails from Argentina. “In Argentina, at least before the Falklands War, we used to say that we act Italian, speak Spanish and think that we are British.”
One-sixth of the population in the United States is Hispanic, according to Chafuen. Currently, New Mexico, Texas and California have the largest Hispanic populations but North Carolina and Alabama are among the states with the fastest growing populations.
One-eighth of the Hispanic population in the United States has a Bachelor’s degree or higher.
“Hispanics are more likely than the native population to believe that hard work leads to success,” Chafuen notes. He also observes that “They support vouchers but unfortunately also support the teachers’ unions.”
The Philadelphia Society is a group of conservative intellectuals that was formed in the wake of the Goldwater defeat in 1964.
