Reply to Black History Month. Does your child's school do anything if there's not a large AA population?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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