CCBC-Net Archives
Re: Teaching Civil Rights
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Nancy Tolson <ananse.nancy_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:10:34 -0400
I discover each semester in the Children№s Literature course that I teach how many college students have little knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement taught to them during their time in primary and secondary school. My children, like Tony Abbott№s, learned more about the Holocaust and even Japanese internment camps than they did about the Civil Rights Movement. Like Sue Giffard stated my three children were on a repeat mode of history on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. I once asked my son who was in high school at the time about his history book and what he learned about the Harlem Renaissance and he told me that his teacher skipped right over it.
My children learned about the Civil Rights Movement because Mommy№s extensive collection of Black children№s nonfiction and fiction books. From Ellen Levine to Mary Lorbiecki№s Sister Anne№s Hands, from Jacqueline Woodson№s The Other Side to Christopher Paul Curtis№ The Watson Go To Birmingham, 1963. they read it. They knew the poetry of that era from Langston Hughes to Dudley Randall. I taught my college students through this literature and included their watching Spike Lee№s film 4 Little Girls and (later adding Evelyn Coleman№s White Socks Only) just to make sure that the students understood how children were involved.
When teaching future educators it is important for them to be exposed to al l eras and not be afraid to teach the literature of American history. I№ve been told by white teachers after I have conducted a workshop on multicultural children№s literature that because they feel uncomfortable teaching іitІ they go the easy way Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Rosa Parks. My goal in teaching children№s literature to education majors is to make them knowledgeable, creative and brave.
Nancy D. Tolson
Received on Mon 01 Aug 2011 11:10:34 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:10:34 -0400
I discover each semester in the Children№s Literature course that I teach how many college students have little knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement taught to them during their time in primary and secondary school. My children, like Tony Abbott№s, learned more about the Holocaust and even Japanese internment camps than they did about the Civil Rights Movement. Like Sue Giffard stated my three children were on a repeat mode of history on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. I once asked my son who was in high school at the time about his history book and what he learned about the Harlem Renaissance and he told me that his teacher skipped right over it.
My children learned about the Civil Rights Movement because Mommy№s extensive collection of Black children№s nonfiction and fiction books. From Ellen Levine to Mary Lorbiecki№s Sister Anne№s Hands, from Jacqueline Woodson№s The Other Side to Christopher Paul Curtis№ The Watson Go To Birmingham, 1963. they read it. They knew the poetry of that era from Langston Hughes to Dudley Randall. I taught my college students through this literature and included their watching Spike Lee№s film 4 Little Girls and (later adding Evelyn Coleman№s White Socks Only) just to make sure that the students understood how children were involved.
When teaching future educators it is important for them to be exposed to al l eras and not be afraid to teach the literature of American history. I№ve been told by white teachers after I have conducted a workshop on multicultural children№s literature that because they feel uncomfortable teaching іitІ they go the easy way Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Rosa Parks. My goal in teaching children№s literature to education majors is to make them knowledgeable, creative and brave.
Nancy D. Tolson
Received on Mon 01 Aug 2011 11:10:34 AM CDT
