South Vietnam Flag and “Journey from the Fall” movie to be included in the 7-12 Curriculum in Anaheim Union High School and Garden Grove Unified School Districts

Anaheim, Calif. – A large community of teachers, university professors, educators, school administrators, superintendents, activists, curriculum specialists, community leaders and supporters gathered at the Tiger Woods Learning center in Anaheim on Friday, Febr. 29, for the announcement of the new curriculum and the showcase of the movie “Journey from the Fall,” which has selected scenes to be incorporated into the 7-12 grade curriculum in the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) and Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD).

“I was that boy,” Parker Le’s voice choked while sharing his view regarding a clash of three different generations of Vietnamese Americans in the movie and their struggle to adapt to new cultures in the United States.  A math teacher at Saddleback High School, Le echoes perspectives of many other teachers and administrators who were also at the screening.  A majority of this diverse audience, whose backgrounds were not of Vietnamese American heritage, was so moved by the movie that there was a moment of silence when the screening ended.  Despite the fact that the movie was about boat people, re-education camp, refugees and the Vietnamese American experience in the new land, teachers of Jewish American and Latino American backgrounds commented that they were able to related to and be touched by the movie. 

Ham Tran, director of “Journey from the Fall.” said, “It is a dream come true to have the movie included in the curriculum.” Hands eagerly rose to thank him for having done such a movie, which independently produced and theatrically released prior to its incorporation to the AUHSD and GGUSD’s supplement curriculum.

Funded by the Center for Language Minority Education and Research (CLMER) at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), the development of “Journey from the Fall” (JFTF) curriculum was a collaboration of CSULB, CLMER, AUHSD, Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA)/Induction, Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA) and the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA). The curriculum committee members include teachers, college professors, curriculum specialist, a licensed psychotherapist, a consultant and an educational researcher.  All of them are volunteers.

The new JFTF curriculum will consist of five lessons.  Topics and issues such as historical context of the boat people, the history of U.S. immigrants and recent refugees, the “Vietnamese Freedom and Heritage Flag,” political prisoners and re-education camps, and development of voices and identity are the five lessons.  The two main concerns that Kim-Oanh Nguyen Lam and Mike Matsuda, the grant writer and movers of this new curriculum project, want to get across are the conceptual difference between immigrant and refugees, and the sensitive topic of the Vietnamese Freedom and Heritage Flag, which is the yellow-based, three-red-stripes flag used in South Vietnam before Saigon was surrendered to the North Vietnamese on April 30, 1975.

Matsuda, who is also the BTSA/Induction coordinator, said, “One of the things that the teachers do not recognize is the difference between refugee and immigrant.” In context, immigrants often have time to prepare for their arrivals in the new land and have established a network of families and friends.  On the other hand, refuges often leave their country of origin with no time for preparation. Most refugees leave their country in secrecy or disguise, and they experience greater adjustment barriers.

“Once the teachers understand the refugee experience, they will come out with different perspectives,” Matsuda said. “Hopefully, [they] will create some sort of emotional connection with the experience of the community, so that they can do a better job at reaching to the kids.”

Nguyen-Lam explained the importance of incorporating a lesson that highlights the issue of the Vietnamese Freedom and Heritage flag.

“The flag has been used as a collective identity for Vietnamese American refugees,” Nguyen-Lam said.  “Our children who were born [in the United States] do not have the same connections.  So it is important for them to have an understanding and respect [for the elder generation] – whether they agree or not – [and] do not look down on their parents.  [It is also important] that their teachers understand why the community feels so sensitive about [the flag]. … In order to build relationships, we need to know each other and respect each other’s past.”

The lesson nurtures awareness that “the disregard for this flag is also a traumatic reminder of how [Vietnam’s] histories of war, exile and political disenfranchisement have been silenced and rendered invisible in the years since 1975 in the U.S.  The insistence on the usage of this Republic of Vietnam flag is an attempt to reinsert this Vietnamese American history into U.S. history and to give Americans a more comprehensive understanding of the Vietnam War and its legacy.”

This is the first effort in the United States, via motion picture, to validate a voice and the existence of the Vietnamese American refugee experience that has been neglected over the years in K-12 history textbooks and curriculum in California and Vietnam. 

However, there is some concern about how educators will bridge the Vietnamese American refugee experience to Vietnamese American immigrants. Laura Schwalm, superintendent of GGUSD, is optimistic that teachers can make this connection.

“This is a good start on letting our teachers see and make a connection,” Schwalm said.  “I have seen the curriculum, and [GGUSD] did purchase the film and graciously got the curriculum with it, [and] a lot of our teachers have been given the DVD.  We will open it to our new teachers and then anyone else, including some of our administrative staff.  We are going to find a way to allow others to see it.  We think we are going to show it to all of our administrators and offer the [DVD] to teachers.  Like anything else, if it speaks to your heart, teachers will tell other teachers.”

Although California’s History-Social Science Standards and Skills does not require the Vietnam War or the experiences that relate to it in school curriculum, there is a requirement of diversity and understanding the community being served.  According to Schwalm, understanding the Vietnamese American community is needed in all areas of teaching and not just history.  Rather, “it can be taught through other lenses.”

Supporting Schwalm’s statement, Parker Le in Santa Ana School District expressed that connecting to Vietnamese Americans is needed in his classroom as well.

“In order to teach any content, you have to really connect to students, you have to be able to open yourself and share your experience,” Le said.  “Many of these kids have parents who came here, regardless of which way they came, but they are here and they deserve an opportunity. I think it is important, as educators, to connect with them on that level because learning can not really occur until we have a common ground to connect and to relate to students.”

Rick Simpson, a deputy chief of staff for the Speaker of the California State Assembly and who has 29 years of work in and around State Capitol primarily on issues of public education, shared his view of the importance of incorporating personal experiences in education. “We often use people’s anecdotes and narratives to write our educational policies.”

With the JFTF curriculum already implemented at teacher training’s level, the AUHSD and GGUSD anticipate a bridge of understanding between teachers and students, and between students and their parent’s native culture.