Education in Albuquerque

A mix of cultures unique to any space in North America funneled into the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area after Spanish invaders stumbled in through the south in 1506. For centuries, indigenous Americans had established ways of knowing and transmitting learning to their young, but colliding old and new cultures left the area’s learning communities irrevocably changed. Subsequently, other native tribes and more European, South American, and Asian cultures proudly ported their perceived best practices concerning educating youth into the area. In 1880, the railroad, bolstered by powerful Anglo economic forces, blasted into Albuquerque, carrying new cultures clinging to the railcars: Greeks, Italians, Germans, Jews of many heritages, English, Easterners, Southerners, a host of cowboys, farmers, merchants, and more–all shadowed by motivated politicians. The founding, unfolding, and evolution of educational systems in Albuquerque weaves a crazy-quilt story regarding public, private, and parochial schooling–as well as regrettably ill-founded systems that wronged natives.