Education 101
In 2025 I was invited back to my alma mater, Occidental College, to teach Education 101.
See the readings
- Yosso — “Whose Culture Has Capital?”
- Plato — The Republic, Book 7
- Kaestle — Pillars of the Republic, Chs. 1–3
- Tyack — The One Best System, Pts. I–V
- Dewey — Experience and Education, Chs. 1–3
- Anderson — Education of Blacks in the South (excerpt)
- Booker T. Washington — “The Atlanta Compromise”
- W.E.B. Du Bois — “The Talented Tenth”
- “Deconstructing Homo Americanus” (excerpt)
- James Baldwin — “On Being White… and Other Lies”
- Bennett deMarrais & LeCompte — “The Social Organization of Schooling”
- Bowles & Gintis — Schooling in Capitalist America, Ch. 3
- Oakes — “Keeping Track”
ED 207 & ED 217
In the spring of ’26, I was called back to Oxy to fill in for a professor who had to take an unexpected leave. I taught ED 207 and ED 217, where we took on some of the most charged issues of the day, like:
See the issues
- Can failing schools be turned around?
- Should bilingual programs permeate the K-12 curriculum?
- Can charter schools improve educational opportunity?
- Do high-stakes tests improve education?
- Affirmative action and who gets into college
- Bilingual education and ethnic studies
- School funding — who pays, who benefits
- Charter schools, vouchers and privatization
- Restorative justice and policing in schools
Re-arguing the big Supreme Court education cases: Brown v. Board, Lau v. Nichols, Plyler v. Doe, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez.
Syllabus link coming
Upward Bound at Harvey Mudd
I know Upward Bound from every side of the desk. As a student at Bassett High School, the program opened up my world. Two summers at UC Davis felt like an academic boot camp, and internships plugged me into a professional setting while the tutoring carried me through the school year. Later, as an Oxy student, I returned as a summer tutor. After graduating — boom — I taught Latino literature, multicultural literature and American history.
And I’m proud to say that more than half a dozen former Upward Bound students have gone on to and graduated from Occidental College.
Faith, Theology & Philosophy
I have a master’s degree in the philosophy of religion from Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.
Back home in Bassett
In grad school, I substitute taught in my hometown school. I like to say I had more students than any other teacher in the district, and it’s still close to my heart.
Bassett sits in the San Gabriel Valley, between La Puente, West Covina and the City of Industry. This My SGV Podcast field piece visits Bassett High School and the neighborhood around it.
Where Bassett isMy SGV Podcast · Watch on Instagram ↗