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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Black History …And Not Just In February
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A metro Atlanta mother who once convinced the Fayette County school district to stop using a social studies book that said slaves were “brought” to Georgia to “help” pick cotton lost her bid urging the state school board to do a better job with African-America history in the curriculum. Here’s the story
Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox said the current curriculum adequately addresses African-American history.
There is no defense for teaching historical facts that are just plain wrong. But teaching children any kind of history is dicey. Ask any social studies teacher worth his or her salt. It isn’t as cut-and-dried as, say, geometry. There’s no way to teach it all, so you pick and choose. But what to pick? What to leave out? And how to frame lessons to reflect different points of view and recollections of those who remember the past differently?
Should Georgia require students to take African-American history, as some states do?
UPDATE: The comments got a little too heated, so I closed them. Thanks to those who posted thoughtful responses to the topic.
On another note: So nobody else needs to send me the link about the Raleigh school district’s controversial busing system. I got it (-; And I hear you loud and clear that you want to talk about it. We will. Just give me some time to do some research, specifically on middle school test scores and high school graduation rates.
And a final note: An organization called the Online News Association likes Get Schooled. Click here.
