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Nikita Bush's career as a public school teacher came to an end when she faced the decision of how to educate her own children. Having been told for years that American public schools would eventually get better for black children, the number of African-American homeschooling parents like Ms. Bush has doubled in little over a decade.
As Patrick Jonsson of the Christian Science monitor reports, studies show all kinds of public school problems disproportionately affect black children, and many parents have decided to take matters into their own hands. Even single parents are forming co-ops to make it possible to educate their children together outside of the public school system.
What do you do when you feel the system is failing your child and their education?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Monday August 22 2016, @09:36AM
I really liked her concern that her kids aren't learning any African history in the schools. One might have thought they should learn American and European history, all the way back to the Greeks and Romans - that's the heritage of the country they live in.
Chinese immigrants don't expect their kids to learn Chinese history, nor do Koreans, Italians, Irish, or any of the other immigrant groups expect school programs tailored to their particular heritage. So why does this woman think her kids should learn African history?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @10:24AM
I hope you're including Native American history in American history. That's the heritage of the land they live on. I enjoyed learning about Native American traditions in school, but if kids remember nothing else, it really helps to know where place names came from, because Native American names are everywhere.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bradley13 on Monday August 22 2016, @11:04AM
I hope you're including Native American history in American history.
Um, no. For better or for worse, the Native American cultures were conquered and destroyed. First by the Spanish, then by the British. The history of that destruction is certainly part of American history. However, the cultures and ideas of Native Americans played no role at all in the founding of the political entity that is the USA.
You can see those facts in a number of possible ways. Fact is: a large part of human history involves one group of people conquering another. I remember reading an article about archeology in the Middle East: it's sometimes very difficult to decide whether or not to stop when you find a layer of ruins, or to keep digging to get at the layer underneath.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 22 2016, @11:50AM
That's not correct. Benjamin Franklin and the Framers of the Constitution took a lot of inspiration from the Iroquois Confederacy, which they had had a lot of contact with.
Goes to show you that it's always good to doublecheck before making an absolutist claim...
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @02:00PM
Glad someone mentioned this.
It certainly was not included in any of my US History classes (probably not bradley13's either).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @05:35PM
Although it was heavily glossed over, along with the details of most of the conflicts from the 18th to 21st centuries.
We got a bit on the Iroquois Nation, most of which I have long since forgotten, and I think some mention of us selling guns to them to help destablize things. And that was it. Mind you the majority of teachers when I was in public education were quite conservative and pro-nationalist (it was pretty much a prereq to not getting fired from your job that you at least presented a conservative nationalist attitude to retain your job, or not get reassigned to a worse class/school.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @05:32PM
the cherokee had a similarly advanced government that was borrowed from by someone. can't recall the name of the cherokee's structure nor who borrowed from it, but you get the point.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Monday August 22 2016, @11:58PM
Good point. We teach the successful, not the failure. Native American culture remains alive(hopefully) within their own cultural boundaries, but it's silly to teach it in public schools to a large degree. Same thing(though more profoundly) with African culture. They can teach that in Africa, if they choose..but even there it was the very definition of failed.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 22 2016, @06:40PM
because Native American names are everywhere.
Well, uh, they're kinda working on fixing that as fast as they can for the last couple decades. Someday we'll whitewash away the last Native American inspired sports team name, city name, get rid of the last museum diorama, why then we'll be able to pretend its been nothing but white folk here since creation.
I live in a state with reservations, I donno if its at the state level or what but there is no small amount of Native American studies in history classes.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 22 2016, @04:38PM
I really liked her concern that her kids aren't learning any African history in the schools. One might have thought they should learn American and European history, all the way back to the Greeks and Romans - that's the heritage of the country they live in.
Funny -- my recollection of my public-school history education is a bit different. Yes, there was a major focus on American history (at least 3 years including middle school and high school) and one year focusing mostly on American civics. So out of 8 years of middle school and high school, the major focus was clearly on American history.
But in middle school I also had a year focusing on history of the Americas, i.e., Canadian and Latin American history and geography. After that, I had a year that started us on ancient history (including Egypt and Mesopotamia, before getting into Greco-Roman history), and only later that year did we get to more "modern" European history.
And then in high school I had a year that was explicitly NOT on American history -- where we revisited some ancient and European history before spreading out. There was quite a bit of Asian history that year too, as well as discussion of modern Asian culture. (I should note this was in a public high school that I believe had only TWO Asian students enrolled in it -- in all four grades -- when I was there.)
Interestingly, as I look back on it, African history was the most neglected. I think we might have spent two weeks or so on it in that class with the Asian/European/etc. history mix. Maybe a bit more if you count ancient Egyptian, Carthaginian, etc. history. I actually remember reading our textbook's section on African history and culture on my own, because I found it kind of interesting, but we never talked about it much in class.
Anyhow, I see your point that we shouldn't necessarily be tailoring our history curriculum to any particular group's "heritage," but I *do* feel it was helpful to me to get a sense of broader global history and culture while in school. And these days I actually wish we had spent MORE time on it -- in a global society as we now live in, I think it's a problem if students don't recognize the importance of understanding other cultures around the globe (which includes their history and traditions).
Like it or not, as global communication on the internet grows further, the students of today should at least have some background to understand the people they are talking to around the world. And at least from my own public school experience, Africa was definitely the most neglected in terms of history and culture.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday August 22 2016, @04:45PM
I take it you've never heard about Chinese kids going to school after school to study the Chinese language? They often don't, but they often do, usually over their objections. I don't THINK these are all first generation kids, either, though admittedly the one I know of is. But there are enough of them to keep, and have kept, the school going for at least decades. Now this doesn't take too much, since IIUC it's run in a church basement, but it takes more than a few.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by mojo chan on Tuesday August 23 2016, @10:41AM
Your argument is that other people don't want their cultural heritage taught, so why should this one person think differently. And you are modded +5 "insightful" for this extremely weak logical fallacy.
Is there a good reason why some African history should not be taught? It seems like actually some of it is, during things like Black History Month, although I get the impression that is mostly focused on slavery and civil rights. Still, just saying (incorrectly) that others don't want it is not a very good rebuttal.
Also, Chinese people do teach Chinese history to their kids in my experience. One mother I know takes regular trips to China, with a group of other mothers and their children, to learn some history and culture.
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