During Black History Month, students around the state learn about famous African-Americans, and historical facts about black Americans.
Nancy Kaffer, Detroit Free Press
But that's not enough.
That's something I'm hearing from parents whose children attend suburban schools, and from parents whose kids attend majority African-American city schools.
Michigan Radio reporter Bryce Huffman, host of the podcast "Same Same Different," is hosting panels around the state to talk about black history, what it means for black kids when it's taught as an elective, a nice-to-have, not a need-to-know. I talked to Huffman about why it's important to do better at teaching black history, for all of us.
Huffman will host a panel this Sunday be at Spread Art in Detroit, at 6 p.m.
Nancy Kaffer: You talk about the "book report” model of black history: Students dress up like important historical figures or share history facts. I haven't done a survey, but that seems be the most popular model for schools to check the Black History Month box.
Bryce Huffman: I went to a Catholic school, and every day in homeroom, we would insert black history facts. As a seventh grader, I loved it, because I'm in this predominantly white school where I don't fit in at all, and it just seemed like oh, wow, everyone in the school is hearing these black history facts. By the time I got to 10th grade, I wondered, "Well, why don't we just talk about these things in our U.S. history class? Why don't we just talk about these things in our English class?"
Then you hear horror stories … like the high school teacher who proposed to show movies like "Boyz n the Hood" as part of an African-American history curriculum.
“We're going to show them 'Boys n the Hood' and 'South Central' and we'll call it a day!”
© Don Campbell, AP ReUnna Dawson, 9, center, joins students from
River of Life Christian School, as they play with scarves and drums
during an African dance Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, at the African
American History & Literature Gallery in Benton Harbor, Mich. Students
visited the gallery to learn about African American history as part of
Black History Month.(Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)
THIS IS A RELIGIOUS CHARTER SCHOOL
But that's not enough.
That's something I'm hearing from parents whose children attend suburban schools, and from parents whose kids attend majority African-American city schools.
Michigan Radio reporter Bryce Huffman, host of the podcast "Same Same Different," is hosting panels around the state to talk about black history, what it means for black kids when it's taught as an elective, a nice-to-have, not a need-to-know. I talked to Huffman about why it's important to do better at teaching black history, for all of us.
Huffman will host a panel this Sunday be at Spread Art in Detroit, at 6 p.m.
Nancy Kaffer: You talk about the "book report” model of black history: Students dress up like important historical figures or share history facts. I haven't done a survey, but that seems be the most popular model for schools to check the Black History Month box.
Bryce Huffman: I went to a Catholic school, and every day in homeroom, we would insert black history facts. As a seventh grader, I loved it, because I'm in this predominantly white school where I don't fit in at all, and it just seemed like oh, wow, everyone in the school is hearing these black history facts. By the time I got to 10th grade, I wondered, "Well, why don't we just talk about these things in our U.S. history class? Why don't we just talk about these things in our English class?"
Then you hear horror stories … like the high school teacher who proposed to show movies like "Boyz n the Hood" as part of an African-American history curriculum.
“We're going to show them 'Boys n the Hood' and 'South Central' and we'll call it a day!”
© DON CAMPBELL, AP Aubree Windmon, 8, right and Taylor Washington
, 9, back, play the drums with students from River of Life Christian School
during an African dance Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, at the African American
History & Literature Gallery in Benton Harbor, Mich. Students visited the
gallery to learn about African American history as part of Black History Month.
Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP
So how should schools should be doing this right?
I think the easiest thing schools can do — I want to phrase it that way, because anytime we talk about changes in education, teachers and educators say, "Great, one more thing on this loaded list of things to do" — is to just acknowledge black people's contributions to the lessons you're teaching. Especially if you're in a predominantly black school, whatever lesson you're teaching, whether it's science, math, history or physics, you should be introducing those students to the idea that people who look like you have already done this, so you can do it, too.
And when we don't do that, leaving African-Americans out of the picture . . .
I got this quote from my friend Ebonee West: When you don't teach black kids that black people have contributed to this country, and you don't teach them that people who look like them have done these great, amazing things, you're sending those kids to the potluck empty-handed. My white friends in seventh and eighth grade never had a question about white people's accomplishments in science and technology. … the analogy of coming to this meal empty-handed is the best way to think about it. You're not coming with a sense of pride and who you and your people are.
In my high school, we covered slavery, and we the economy of the south at the time of the Civil War, but there was never a line drawn between them.
There's not that through-line connecting all of the atrocities of slavery to the civil rights movement, and what leaders were fighting for.
We learned about slavery in my predominantly black elementary school in a really raw way. We learned about how terrible it was. What we didn't necessarily learn was that economic trajectory from slavery. I think we kind of had it in the back of our heads that as black kids growing up in Detroit, we could see things around us and make little connections, but we just didn't have that sophisticated understanding that these things are still going on, and still shaping the future of many African Americans and many white Americans, to be quite frank . . .
I was a kid learning about a lot of this stuff thinking, "Wow, these white people were so mean to Dr. King and Rosa Parks all this long time ago," not realizing that was happening in my parents' lifetime. When we put distance between the atrocities of slavery and our current state, we're telling people, it's not that big a deal anymore. We need to help kids understand just how recent some of these things are, and how ongoing a lot of it is.
You've probably noticed that a lot of times white people feel very awkward talking about race. But it seems like the only way to not be awkward is to talk about it a lot more.
What happens in a lot of schools is they put it off until February, so schools are disrupting the flow that the students already have. They're bringing up this often-painful subject that stirs up a lot of different feelings in black people, and it comes off as this forced attempt to have some sort of conversation about racial reconciliation, or racial healing or whatever it might be. And it never really turns into that, because once March 1 rolls around, those conversations end.
If you had it built in from the beginning . . . well, it might still be a little awkward. But if you just have these conversations from the start, and you treat black history as American history, as just as important as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, then you you can avoid a lot of that awkwardness later down the road.
Nancy Kaffer is a Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Schools should teach black history like history. Because it is.
So how should schools should be doing this right?
I think the easiest thing schools can do — I want to phrase it that way, because anytime we talk about changes in education, teachers and educators say, "Great, one more thing on this loaded list of things to do" — is to just acknowledge black people's contributions to the lessons you're teaching. Especially if you're in a predominantly black school, whatever lesson you're teaching, whether it's science, math, history or physics, you should be introducing those students to the idea that people who look like you have already done this, so you can do it, too.
And when we don't do that, leaving African-Americans out of the picture . . .
I got this quote from my friend Ebonee West: When you don't teach black kids that black people have contributed to this country, and you don't teach them that people who look like them have done these great, amazing things, you're sending those kids to the potluck empty-handed. My white friends in seventh and eighth grade never had a question about white people's accomplishments in science and technology. … the analogy of coming to this meal empty-handed is the best way to think about it. You're not coming with a sense of pride and who you and your people are.
In my high school, we covered slavery, and we the economy of the south at the time of the Civil War, but there was never a line drawn between them.
There's not that through-line connecting all of the atrocities of slavery to the civil rights movement, and what leaders were fighting for.
We learned about slavery in my predominantly black elementary school in a really raw way. We learned about how terrible it was. What we didn't necessarily learn was that economic trajectory from slavery. I think we kind of had it in the back of our heads that as black kids growing up in Detroit, we could see things around us and make little connections, but we just didn't have that sophisticated understanding that these things are still going on, and still shaping the future of many African Americans and many white Americans, to be quite frank . . .
I was a kid learning about a lot of this stuff thinking, "Wow, these white people were so mean to Dr. King and Rosa Parks all this long time ago," not realizing that was happening in my parents' lifetime. When we put distance between the atrocities of slavery and our current state, we're telling people, it's not that big a deal anymore. We need to help kids understand just how recent some of these things are, and how ongoing a lot of it is.
You've probably noticed that a lot of times white people feel very awkward talking about race. But it seems like the only way to not be awkward is to talk about it a lot more.
What happens in a lot of schools is they put it off until February, so schools are disrupting the flow that the students already have. They're bringing up this often-painful subject that stirs up a lot of different feelings in black people, and it comes off as this forced attempt to have some sort of conversation about racial reconciliation, or racial healing or whatever it might be. And it never really turns into that, because once March 1 rolls around, those conversations end.
If you had it built in from the beginning . . . well, it might still be a little awkward. But if you just have these conversations from the start, and you treat black history as American history, as just as important as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, then you you can avoid a lot of that awkwardness later down the road.
Nancy Kaffer is a Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Schools should teach black history like history. Because it is.
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