The rollback of diversity efforts makes teachers wonder about the impact on Black History Month
One school district said officials and teachers in three major districts in Nebraska declined to talk about black history education this year, claiming it was a tricky topic or citing “the national dialogue around education compliance is evolving.”
Nebraska State Education Association president Tim Royers recently attended a national conference with other teachers union leaders.
“So profoundly shocking effects are happening now, thanks to the orders of Washington,” he said. “I don’t think any school or district wants to talk about it because of the fear that it will be weaponized and used against them to take it away.” Federal funding.”
Former history teacher Royers said the cutting-edge educators of these discussions were exhausted, and these pressures led to low teacher retention.
Research shows that rural areas (most school districts in Nebraska) have the highest turnover rate.
“[Teachers are] It’s not necessary to shy away from education in Black History Month, but I mean, we’re hearing stories about whether a program mentions the word equity and they’ll contact them and ask them to close the program or they say Royes : “Re-loss the funds.”
Persist in Black History Month
However, not all teachers have experienced these same tensions. Dan Wade III is a social science teacher in the Southern California city of Oxnard. He co-wrote the African-American study course with the high school that started last year. He said his school district has been supporting it.
His class proximity.
“Ninety-five percent of the students are not African Americans who attend classes,” he said.
Wade said students usually conduct classroom discussions based on current affairs.
“I taught this lesson and it almost felt like a way to stick to black history,” he said. “I think I mean, it’s reinforced me in a way that I avoided avoiding.”
But Wade said he wasn’t sure about the future of the class, as debates on how schools should teach black history continue.
“Black history is not the history that is usually taught in traditional courses, we include different groups of people. So, essentially, you know that attacks on Dei can also be against black history or Asian American history, Mexican-American Attacks from history, etc.,” he said.
Black History Month is about achievement and history
The letter “Dear Colleague” sent to schools earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights was accused of “school-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination.”
“U.S. educational institutions discriminate against students on a racial basis, including white and Asian students,” the letter said.
Lagarrett King is a professor of social studies education at Buffalo State University and director of the K-12 Center for Education for Black History and Race Literacy.
“Recently, you know, ‘No one should say that any race is superior.’ This is not taught in black history. No one teaches black people to be superior than white people,” he said.
Royers added that history education is about sharing the whole facts, even if it can be ugly.
“Black History Month is two different things: improving black achievements and contributions to American history that might otherwise have been not informed or under-sales, but also acknowledges the history of systemic oppression that has been used to reduce black voices and black participation society,” he said.
Black educators usually lead more education about black history, but black teachers are significantly underrepresented in American schools, King said. According to data released by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2020, about 80% of teachers in public schools in the United States are considered white and non-Hispanic.
King said there are several reasons to teach black history without hesitation: Many educators and curriculum writers lack black history education in schools, and many black educators do better in teaching black history because they learn from home. Black history, like at home and churches and community centers.
“It’s through their perspective. It’s about their voice, it’s about their experiences, right? So when you make black history this way (outside of the black history taught by white lenses), this There may be some intimidation to people even be able to take this approach,” he said.
Mrs. Gwen’s preparatory course plan for the day included learning about lighting invented by black businessman Garrett Morgan.
“Black history, you know, is something we all should learn. It’s part of our history. Because now I’m not sure, I’m reading about the difference between them who might remove black history from school and black research from black studies Content. So if they don’t get it here, they probably won’t get it.” Partridge said.
