Description

One of CIC's primary activities was to hold biweekly meetings called "community dialogues" to discuss broad issues such as racism, police sensitivity, education, and employment discrimination within the city of San Diego. The dialog continued on education issues and the San Diego Unified School District. A report was presented by the schools regarding the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, which was primarily a demonstration program in the district, designed to identify methods, techniques and materials, and also to increase the involvement of Mexican-American parents. Most responses to the presentation reflected that not nearly enough was being done, and eventually embraced the idea that the primary underlying problem was white racism, and token programs failed to make a substantial difference in improving education for Mexican-American and Mexican immigrant children. The concept of tracking students according to intellectual ability was also attacked; it was argued that intelligence tests (like the Stanford-Binet) were biased in favor of white majority children, and also that tracking children into remedial or special classes, in effect, socially isolates them from mainstream society, regardless of color. Several teachers, both white and Mexican- American, expressed fear of losing their jobs for publicly criticizing the schools; nevertheless, a few spoke out, stating that the school system was failing, and calling for major reform from the school board. The meetings were moderated by CIC Executive Director Carroll Waymon, and his voice is often the first one heard in the audio recordings of the meetings. The tape constitutes the minutes, but a summary is handwritten on 11 pages of stenographic-notebook paper with tape-recorder counter numbers on the left (006-668) next to names of speakers, and comments, resolutions, motions, etc. usually noted on the right but sometimes taking up much of a page.