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This could have been written better, 2002-02-19, 8:09 p.m.


So today I assigned a project. We are studying Langston Hughes and I decided they should learn a little about black history. Especially since they seem to know NOTHING! So I assigned 6 people to each topic : Martin Luther King Jr., The Greensboro Sit-ins, the Bus Boycott and Malcolm X. They'll then get into groups and teach each other about it.

Someone asked me: Why do we have to learn this history. My jaw dropped. When I replied that for so long 'this history' was not taught and we need to respect the history of other cultures and learn about fights in history so that we can take the good from them and make the bad never happen again. Well, all of this was said in fewer sentences but with the same meaning because it was bell time and I had to get out of there. But he agreed.

But still. Do people live their lives that way? Not wanting to learn something that is different from them? Because my students are all white, do I shy away from teaching anything about Black History? Or is that more of a reason to teach it? Just like, if I was teaching all girls, would I not include male authors?

I think students should learn about all facets of history. Not just our own, but that of others. Even if there are no representatives of that culture in that class.

I speak of cultures and 'others' as though I'm separating us all into boxes. We're not that easily separated and we're all people.

Does this make sense? Or does it come off as worse than it sounds? What I'm trying to say is that we need to learn about not just our own history but the history of others, as well as how it relates and compares to ours. No matter what 'ours' is.

I don't feel I've said this well. I've had a long and weird couple of days.


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