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

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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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You can't have American history without American Indians. You can't have American history without African-Americans. [/quote]

Sure you can. And then it would even be [i]interesting[/i]!

My kid wasn't even in kindergarten before he knew that "African-American History" meant boring, preachy crap.[/quote]

Wow. Your kid's school must really suck. What is so boring about AA history? [i]Boring?[/i][/quote]

ALL OF IT.

I just don't give a shit.

Doesn't speak to me, isn't relevant to my life.[/quote]

wow so anything that isn't relevant to your life you just don't give a shit about.  what a way to live.[/quote]

(shrug) The rationale for including the black history stuff is that blacks don't find history without blacks in it to be relevant to their lives. I have an analogous feeling about their history.[/quote]No one uses that rationale. You are ridiculous.  How are civil rights irrelevant to your life?[/quote]

The civil rights movement should be integrated into American history.  They Balkanize it and frankly stigmatize it by presenting it as "Black history."[/quote]

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. 
[/quote]

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.  
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OP - you may want to post in the private school forum?  You might get more responses from private school parents. [/quote]

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