Title Educating the enemy : teaching Nazis and Mexicans in the Cold War borderlands / Jonna Perrillo

Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022

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Description 1 online resource (200 pages) : illustrations Contents Introduction -- 1. The Fight for Civilization -- 2. Something New in the Territory: Race, Space, and Schooling in the Borderlands -- 3. At Home on the Range: Civics and Civilization -- 4. The Promise and Peril of Bilingualism: Language Learning in El Paso Schools -- 5. Devoted to the Child: Education and the Politics of Children's Care -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index Summary Compares the privileged educational experience offered to the children of relocated Nazi scientists in Texas with the educational disadvantages faced by Mexican American students living in the same city. Educating the Enemy begins with the 144 children of Nazi scientists who moved to El Paso, Texas, in 1946 as part of the military program called Operation Paperclip. These German children were bused daily from a military outpost to four El Paso public schools. Though born into a fascist enemy nation, the German children were quickly integrated into the schools and, by proxy, American society. Their rapid assimilation offered evidence that American public schools played a vital role in ensuring the victory of democracy over fascism. Jonna Perrillo not only tells this fascinating story of Cold War educational policy, but she draws an important contrast with another, much more numerous population of children in the El Paso public schools: Mexican Americans. Like everywhere else in the Southwest, Mexican American children in El Paso were segregated into "Mexican" schools, where the children received a vastly different educational experience. Not only were they penalized for speaking Spanish--the only language all but a few spoke due to segregation--they were tracked for low-wage and low-prestige careers, with limited opportunities for economic success. Educating the Enemy charts what two groups of children--one that might have been considered the enemy, the other that was treated as such--reveal about the ways political assimilation has been treated by schools as an easier, more viable project than racial or ethnic assimilation Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based upon print version of record Subject Americanization -- Political aspects -- United States Children of Nazis -- Education -- Texas -- El Paso Education -- Political aspects -- United States Germans -- Cultural assimilation -- Texas -- El Paso Mexican Americans -- Education -- Texas -- El Paso Racism in education -- Texas -- El Paso EDUCATION / General. Education -- Political aspects Germans -- Cultural assimilation Mexican Americans -- Education Racism in education Texas -- El Paso United States Form Electronic book ISBN 022681596X 9780226815961

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