The San Diego Mission: Adapting Education for the Learners of Tomorrow

 

For our project, we first investigated the history of San Diego and its metropolitan transit. We then decided to take a closer look at the history of the San Diego Mission Trolley Stop. We found a lot of unknown history while conducting our research. Much of that history involved the Native American people of San Diego and the San Diego’s Mission’s mistreatment of those people. The events of this history influenced the cultural demographic of San Diego even to this day.

 

The Spanish enslaved the Native Americans and forced them to work on the farm -a trade in which they had no interest  or experience. This history pointed to the ways that a large portion of Native American history is not taught in schools, overlooked by both by textbooks and teachers. We feel that the lessons taught to children do not present an accurate depiction of the events that occurred throughout the United States of America. Acts of genocide of Native Americans and tribes all across the country can not and should not be overlooked.

 

We focused on the San Diego Mission because, not only is it right here in San Diego, but it is also the source of Spanish Colonization on the West Coast in what is now the United States of America.

 

We hope to shed light on the ways social studies is taught in San Diego public schools, because it is not right that textbooks continue to misrepresent Native Americans by calling them Indians. Furthermore, they neglect to show aspects of their culture and history. Our hope is that the current curriculum for teaching these subjects is changed to better represent events of the past and show a more holistic and complete view of United States History.