BLOG 5: Ethnic History
Reflection of “The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies” by Christine E. Sleeter
Hope McCarthy
Throughout my years of schooling, I have been a History/Social Studies enthusiast. For the longest time, I wanted to focus my studies on History. With that being said, this article (week after week, it seems) opened my eyes even more. When the article mentioned that there was positive engagement when given books and study material revolving around ethnicity, that made the most sense to me. Why would you not be more interested in material that revolves around YOUR OWN history?!
After every week I come to this blog, reluctant to admit that I was one of the highschoolers who were blinded by what I was learning. I was learning about mostly white people in history, so I found that interesting. Like the text mentioning the Bill of Rights, I was one at the time to believe it gave everyone rights. As I grew up a bit more, I realized that is not true and there are obviously MANY social injustices around us. In college, I continued to make my extracurricular classes focused on History, wondering if there would be any involvement of different ethnic groups. However, a majority of that curriculum that professors chose, was focused around white men who “built our industry”. (Not for nothing, I don't really care that Rockefeller was big on railroads!)
With that being said, shifting curriculum to focusing on particular ethnic groups would be beneficial for positive engagement and education on people's own specific backgrounds. Even if you are white, education on these backgrounds would also be supporting those groups, coming to the realization that no-not everyone is considered equal-to this day. People of color for years have sat back and learned about white men “building our country” so why should white people not have to learn about others?
The town I grew up in was predominantly white, even the teachers. So being educated on ethnic groups was less common than learning about the white males, and what ethnic groups went against them to gain rights. This coincided exactly to what the article was getting at, my town is a great example unfortunately. Integrating ethnic curriculum into studies is past due, and students would benefit from this greatly. Engraving in these students' heads that just because few people stood up for their rights almost 100 years ago, does not mean that they were fully successful and we are all ACTUALLY equal. Here: Is an attached link to RIDE Social Studies, in which you can click on the slide deck for curriculum in elementary levels. All in which include that students will learn to work in communities together, but nothing on history and backgrounds of specific groups.
My discussion topic for class would be how would we determine a history curriculum fit for each district? How do you decide which ethnic group to focus on the most? What would get the students positively engaged if they are not being taught about their background?
Hello McCarthy! I really appreciate your input. I've decided to add another layer to it. School is a space of power, and this manifests itself in every aspect of school life: the way history is presented, the heroes of that history… Everything is designed to lead victims to accept the unacceptable without being able to question what they are learning, as long as it serves the interests of the system. This fierce determination to ban these programs in schools is part of a very specific plan: to prevent these groups from opening their eyes and becoming aware of their power. In the video “Precious Knowledge,” Tom Horne wanted to shut down this program at all costs, under the pretext that it did not correspond to American values. What are these values? Is there only one? How does teaching based on ethnicity represent a danger to education or to American values?
ReplyDeleteHi Hope! I share the feeling that ethnic studies needs to be implemented at all grade levels. Because our current education system is standards-driven, I wonder what a 'middle-ground' would look like by shifting history/social studies to be taught this way? Who's deciding what students need to know, and is there a different approach to achieve that outcome?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, if it was already incorporated within history courses, maybe this wouldn't be a problem? I also thought that if they were to change the curriculum...if I were them, I wouldn't even tell anyone. The students will learn more, the parents won't be made they are learning about "ethnic cultures" (if they don't want them to be for some reason) and maybe everything would be better?!
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