Black History Month. Does your child's school do anything if there's not a large AA population?
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Anonymous
The civil rights movement should be integrated into American history. They Balkanize it and frankly stigmatize it by presenting it as "Black history." |
Anonymous
| I am a teacher in an elementary school. I teach language arts and social studies. We don't do anything specific or special for February. We don't cover "Black History", or "White History" or "American Indian History". They are not taught in isolation. I teach "history" and follow the district's Pacing Guide. |
Anonymous
Actually, it does. That's what makes it history, rather than, for example, "Information about some of the things that rich white men did". |
Anonymous
Actually the rationale for including the black history stuff is that it's history. |
Anonymous
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Personally I like history and I appreciate the seemingly minute details because they help paint a clearer picture and they provide a greater understanding of the time. Blacks have been integral to American history in many ways but they're often relegated to the minute details.
For instance, kids are taught that the development of railroads was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution but they rarely are introduced to the minute detail that the entire southern railroad network that was built during the slavery era was built almost exclusively by slaves. Call me crazy but I think that often overlooked aspect makes it more interesting because history isn't just about time and events it's about people and their stories and there is always more than one side to a story so taking multiple perspectives into account allows for greater understanding of the time and the events. |
Anonymous
That's the same way at our school. Parents are welcome to present (and cook! Yumm!) about their heritage - however they define it and to whatever extent it interests them. The Italian booth had the most delicious pitzelles made by a mom based on her grandmother's recipe. And my MIL made hungarian bread based on her mom's recipe. |
Anonymous
No. You are wrong about that. The rationale for including "black history stuff" is that large parts of actual, real, and even interesting parts of *YOUR* American history were written out of history books completely. |
Anonymous
Great, it sounds like you're inclusive in your instruction--not all teachers or school systems are, or at least they have not always been. I'm in my thirties and attended elementary school in VA. I remember distinctly that the discussion of slavery in my sixth-grade history book was relegated to about one paragraph. That's it. I remember other weird stuff, like a set of encyclopedias in the classroom that discussed how "Negros" were "nomadic" and showed four different phenotypes of "Negroes." I'm not even AA (black, but first-generation American) and I remember this being off-putting. Our sixth-grade teacher also made disparaging comments about AAs on at least one occasion, after which I took the initiative to meet with the principal. I'm rambling a bit, but here's my point. Not every teacher or school system will ensure that the curriculum includes discussion of the contributions of AAs, Latinos, women, etc. I believe this is why these set-aside times of the year were implemented in the first place--to ensure that even if these contributions aren't discussed within the main curriculum (in an ideal world, they would be), they will at least get some mention. |
Anonymous
Well technically it is taught in American history. Problem is, much of AA history, as well as Native American history, has been whitewashed in the history books. Kids learn a few nuggets about slavery, the slave trade and the civil rights movement, but thats pretty much it. I used to teach at a private middle school in Atlanta that was predominately white and asian. The school had a black principal and she was pretty righteous in making sure our kids knew AA history. For black history month we visited a black inventors museum in DT ATL. You will not believe how many kids had their minds absolutely blown about the contributions AA have made to this country. We then had an assignment that required them to research one inventor and briefly present on them in class. Some other cool things we did: We simulated poll testing, where kids who failed an ambiguous test were not allowed to vote on a topic. We also, showed them a diagram of what a slave ship actually looked like, and how people were transported and the conditions they faced, such as severe overcrowding. In our general discussion of the New Deal, we highlighted that while blacks backed FDR and supported his efforts to get the country out of the great depression, many new deal programs actually discriminated against blacks as FDR caved to the pressure of southern white democrats, and the administration allowed for discrimination. Very interesting discussions we had which I am sure have shaped these kids lives for the better. |
Anonymous
I'm not sure how people presenting stuff about cultures in Nigeria or Ghana or Angola (or anywhere else) would address OP's issue of making sure that kids at school learn about African-American history? |
Anonymous
OP here. PP, I really appreciate you post above. I wish my DD school would have done some of those things. But I understand I should have figured that me choosing a predominately white school would lead to these types of deficiencies. It still saddens me that the school doesn't do anything other than a library table with AA books placed on it. I know this board has a lot of parents in those JKLMM schools. Those schools are mostly all non-AA right? Based on the responses here, I'm guessing they don't do anything? What about Bullis, Landon, or Maret? Can anyone comment? I am asking this honestly, not trying to be snarky. I am thinking of Holton-Arms, Stone Ridge, or Holy Cross for high school for my DD, I called those schools today to find out if they did anything. Surprisingly I was able to speak to the Admissions Director for all schools. I had a great conversation with Holton Arms, she said that their BSA does something during the month. Stone Ridge and Holy Cross said they do something during the month, but try to recognize the history on minorities all year long. That was great to hear. |
Anonymous
OP - you may want to post in the private school forum? You might get more responses from private school parents. |
Anonymous
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I really feel like our current history books are extremely inclusive. No need to balkanize different segments of society by pulling them out. Current history books aren't the "white, old, rich men's history books" of our grandparents era.
FWIW I went to a 95% black school and every single book I read during English class was about blacks and written by a black author. The entire school stopped everything else to celebrate black history month. We were assigned black role models that we dressed up as and presented on (like Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver). The school hallways were decorated permanently with only black role models and they mainly hired black teachers. It was pretty lonely for the non black students and I always felt the education lacked because we were missing other race's contributions to America. |
Anonymous
OP here. But what the rest of the year? Are you saying that the only history that was taught was AA history? all the time? I'm asking because how you felt is how my DD feels about her school now. She says the school seems to only focus on history by American whites, and white Europeans. Not sure if it's by design or unintentional. They don't teach very much Asian or Hispanic history either. I'm admitting my ignorance here. Maybe I need to study the curriculum for grades. Because maybe this is the norm? In addition to my original question, maybe there is a larger question. Is any history being taught other than White-American/White-European History in the K-12 years? I sent the principal an email. I haven't heard back. |
Anonymous
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I don't know if anyone has seen this response to Stacy Dash's ignorant comment about Black History Month. This is priceless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe5JSkUvj5c |