“Name 10 significant American historical figures.”
That’s the question Christopher Chatmon posed to his 10th grade history students on the first day of school several years ago. Each student jotted down a list. Then they teamed up in small groups to refine it. Finally, they shared their top 10 with the class.
His students at the San Francisco public high school where he previously taught were mostly African-American, Latino and Asian-American teenagers. Yet when the class stood back to examine the 40 historical figures on the board, they found that all but one were white men. This happened in more than one class. The only people of color who made the cut were either Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr.
Chatmon felt frustrated that, up until then, the students had been taught such a narrow scope of history. “I told them to throw their textbooks out the window,” he says.
Our classrooms have become increasingly diverse, but has our curriculum kept up with it? In most places, the answer is no. A systematic review of K-12 textbooks published in 2011 found that whites dominated the story lines. African Americans played a smaller, secondary role, usually as slaves. Latinos and Asian Americans appeared “mainly as figures on the landscape.” Native Americans mainly existed in the past.
But what if high school students had the opportunity to learn about literature, history, art, and music in a way that applied to them? What if students of color studied the contributions and histories of people from their background? And what if all students had a space where they could safely discuss identity, race, ethnicity, gender, and other issues of equity?
[For more of this story, written by Ellen Lee, go to https://psmag.com/can-ethnic-s...ecf448c1b#.cck8yp7z1]
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