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Re: Civil Rights
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From: Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:10:02 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
I love the Mexican example. Here's another interesting twist on an approac h to civil rights: I was on the hiring committee to replace a vice princip al at our college prep middle school/high school. One of the candidates th at impressed me was a young white male who - in his previous position as a teacher - taught civil rights classes from the perspective of the oppressor . Yep. It's a road less taken. He talked about how settlers escaped oppr ession in Europe, only to turn around and create similar conditions for the Native Americans and Africans.
We hired him.
So that begs the question: What is our purpose in teaching Civil Rights acr oss the country? And why through such limited lenses?
The discussion of how and where to teach Civil Rights is gut wrenching to s ome of us who have to deal with those children when they come home. As I r ead the other posts about children not knowing or retaining information som e thoughts occurred to me (as an author, a mom, and as an MIT college inter viewer of 30+ years) having a difficult time finding urban students qualifi ed for college entrance) - perhaps many of them DO know the information and our choosing not to retain it. Why carry that pain around and what are th ey supposed to do with the information absent alternatives and strategies.
Schools tend not to approach this as more of a global issue. That the same oppressive situation occurred with Native Americans. Or Aborigines in Aust ralia. Or the inhabitants of Easter Island. Or Irish immigrants crossing i nto the US through Ellis Island. Or the Sherpas who dragged the British up Mount Everest but were treated inhumanely. Instead - we make African Ameri cans "own" the problem as the primary victims of a horrendous period of tim e and as a result, it has a deleterious affect on children going forward. That even in 2011, minority children are forced to negotiate the world from a position of weakness instead of a position of strength. And white childr en are made to feel guilty for acts they didn't cause.
It's almost as if adults are still coming to terms with that limited segmen t of our past and keep pushing it at children without opening the lens. A nd as a result of that "steady diet" we limit their exploration of the broa der perspective.
An example. My youngest attended a summer school at Phillips Exeter Academ y a few years ago. The school typifies a global perspective given that stu dents come for all over the world. She called home fuming because - during "Diversity Day" students from all over the world showcased their cultures ( music, dance, technology). When the African Americans stood up they talked about . . .
one guess . . .
BINGO!
Civil rights and slavery. Not that our history started long before the boa ts dragged Africans here, not the significant accomplishments of people of color - just civil rights and slavery. They told the same rehashed stories of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Of Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washin gton, slave ships and freedom trails.
She was mortified that for many international students this was their first up-close and personal exposure to minorities and what they got was a rehas h of information they probably hear in their own schools. Making minorities appear "less than. . . ."
And yet, even in those stories they didn't really understand that the facts weren't always complete. That Rosa Parks went to the bus knowing beforeha nd she had back-up. Or that Booker T. Washington was secretly funding effo rts towards equality even as he preached separate but equal. Or that Thurg ood Marshall helped write a constitution for an African nation to insure th e rights of whites were protected in the formation of the new country? Or t hat not every person of color had slaves as relatives or swam across the Ri o Grande as an "undocumented" immigrant.
I told her that she had to set the example. Because her peers were only reg urgitating the information they'd been fed. How are they supposed to know about musicians, dancers, inventors, if we don't teach empowerment as part of the process?
Fast forward two years - My daughter - now at a NE boarding school -- wrote on her Facebook page: "Do you know how awkward it is to be the only Africa n American in a class discussing slavery. It is ironic that one of her bes t friends here at home, a young white male, had written earlier that day "D o you know how awkward it is to be the only white person in a class discuss ing slavery?" Both are getting the same "ubiquitous" fare.
A vast majority of the CCBC list consists of educators, librarians, publish ers, writers/illustrators - all tasked with informing and enlightening chil dren. WHAT do we give those children to dissipate the anger when we're done helping them check the right boxes on a test?
So the Mexican approach suggested on this list is a good one because it av oids a tired stereotype of African Americans as ubiquitous and homogenous v ictims.
But in the end, what probably influences children more than the limited tim e a teacher has in a lesson plan, is that those children go back out into t he world where everywhere else they look, they aren't the heroes - not in n onfiction, not in fiction.
Why teach Civil Rights but ignore the fact that publishers provide few if a ny books in which the "descendants of the oppressed" are depicted as someth ing other than invisible? Or disposable? Where are the books in which the ability to be a hero isn't tied to some past struggle? Or where race is n ot the source of the problem the protagonist is attempting to solve?
Just finished seeing "Captain America" with my family. Where 99% of the ca st is white. When did my children begin cheering? When the Black captive w as the only person who could translate the enemy's transmissions. He revea led that he'd studied German at Howard before switching to French. And the n had a conversation in fluent French with another of the team. The scenes were seamless - and perfect in tone and pitch.
More of that please, to balance out the rest of what we give to these kids.
Off my soapbox now………Christine
Christine Taylor-Butler ChristineTB_at_alum.mit.edu George B. Morgan '20 Award for Sustained Excellence -- MIT's Educational Co uncil http://www.ChristineTaylorButler.com
Received on Sun 31 Jul 2011 05:10:02 PM CDT
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:10:02 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
I love the Mexican example. Here's another interesting twist on an approac h to civil rights: I was on the hiring committee to replace a vice princip al at our college prep middle school/high school. One of the candidates th at impressed me was a young white male who - in his previous position as a teacher - taught civil rights classes from the perspective of the oppressor . Yep. It's a road less taken. He talked about how settlers escaped oppr ession in Europe, only to turn around and create similar conditions for the Native Americans and Africans.
We hired him.
So that begs the question: What is our purpose in teaching Civil Rights acr oss the country? And why through such limited lenses?
The discussion of how and where to teach Civil Rights is gut wrenching to s ome of us who have to deal with those children when they come home. As I r ead the other posts about children not knowing or retaining information som e thoughts occurred to me (as an author, a mom, and as an MIT college inter viewer of 30+ years) having a difficult time finding urban students qualifi ed for college entrance) - perhaps many of them DO know the information and our choosing not to retain it. Why carry that pain around and what are th ey supposed to do with the information absent alternatives and strategies.
Schools tend not to approach this as more of a global issue. That the same oppressive situation occurred with Native Americans. Or Aborigines in Aust ralia. Or the inhabitants of Easter Island. Or Irish immigrants crossing i nto the US through Ellis Island. Or the Sherpas who dragged the British up Mount Everest but were treated inhumanely. Instead - we make African Ameri cans "own" the problem as the primary victims of a horrendous period of tim e and as a result, it has a deleterious affect on children going forward. That even in 2011, minority children are forced to negotiate the world from a position of weakness instead of a position of strength. And white childr en are made to feel guilty for acts they didn't cause.
It's almost as if adults are still coming to terms with that limited segmen t of our past and keep pushing it at children without opening the lens. A nd as a result of that "steady diet" we limit their exploration of the broa der perspective.
An example. My youngest attended a summer school at Phillips Exeter Academ y a few years ago. The school typifies a global perspective given that stu dents come for all over the world. She called home fuming because - during "Diversity Day" students from all over the world showcased their cultures ( music, dance, technology). When the African Americans stood up they talked about . . .
one guess . . .
BINGO!
Civil rights and slavery. Not that our history started long before the boa ts dragged Africans here, not the significant accomplishments of people of color - just civil rights and slavery. They told the same rehashed stories of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Of Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washin gton, slave ships and freedom trails.
She was mortified that for many international students this was their first up-close and personal exposure to minorities and what they got was a rehas h of information they probably hear in their own schools. Making minorities appear "less than. . . ."
And yet, even in those stories they didn't really understand that the facts weren't always complete. That Rosa Parks went to the bus knowing beforeha nd she had back-up. Or that Booker T. Washington was secretly funding effo rts towards equality even as he preached separate but equal. Or that Thurg ood Marshall helped write a constitution for an African nation to insure th e rights of whites were protected in the formation of the new country? Or t hat not every person of color had slaves as relatives or swam across the Ri o Grande as an "undocumented" immigrant.
I told her that she had to set the example. Because her peers were only reg urgitating the information they'd been fed. How are they supposed to know about musicians, dancers, inventors, if we don't teach empowerment as part of the process?
Fast forward two years - My daughter - now at a NE boarding school -- wrote on her Facebook page: "Do you know how awkward it is to be the only Africa n American in a class discussing slavery. It is ironic that one of her bes t friends here at home, a young white male, had written earlier that day "D o you know how awkward it is to be the only white person in a class discuss ing slavery?" Both are getting the same "ubiquitous" fare.
A vast majority of the CCBC list consists of educators, librarians, publish ers, writers/illustrators - all tasked with informing and enlightening chil dren. WHAT do we give those children to dissipate the anger when we're done helping them check the right boxes on a test?
So the Mexican approach suggested on this list is a good one because it av oids a tired stereotype of African Americans as ubiquitous and homogenous v ictims.
But in the end, what probably influences children more than the limited tim e a teacher has in a lesson plan, is that those children go back out into t he world where everywhere else they look, they aren't the heroes - not in n onfiction, not in fiction.
Why teach Civil Rights but ignore the fact that publishers provide few if a ny books in which the "descendants of the oppressed" are depicted as someth ing other than invisible? Or disposable? Where are the books in which the ability to be a hero isn't tied to some past struggle? Or where race is n ot the source of the problem the protagonist is attempting to solve?
Just finished seeing "Captain America" with my family. Where 99% of the ca st is white. When did my children begin cheering? When the Black captive w as the only person who could translate the enemy's transmissions. He revea led that he'd studied German at Howard before switching to French. And the n had a conversation in fluent French with another of the team. The scenes were seamless - and perfect in tone and pitch.
More of that please, to balance out the rest of what we give to these kids.
Off my soapbox now………Christine
Christine Taylor-Butler ChristineTB_at_alum.mit.edu George B. Morgan '20 Award for Sustained Excellence -- MIT's Educational Co uncil http://www.ChristineTaylorButler.com
Received on Sun 31 Jul 2011 05:10:02 PM CDT
