Sunday, March 18, 2007

An Update on So Far from the Bamboo Grove

So Far from the Bamboo Grove, the book that caused much blog discussion early in the semester is in the news again.

Citing an inaccurate conception of history and distorted images of Koreans, the nearby Montgomery County (MD) Board of Education just banned the book from classroom use. This Chosun Ilbo article claims this decision as a victory for Korean-Americans.

As a group, Korean-Americans have very low levels of political participation (including low levels of voter registration and voter turn out). Angered by misrepresentation, Korean-American parents around the U.S. engaged in public debate, attending school board meetings, writing representatives, etc. The article concludes with the consul general saying that the Montgomery County Board of Education could set a precedent for other school districts across the country.
I'm interested in the precedent this could set for increased political participation of Korean-American community and the potential inter-generational impact as children learn about the political process at the local level by witnessing their parents' participating in the channels of public debate.

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