Educating about race should be bigger part of curriculum
Every year, students in school districts across the country observe a day in January to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his advocacy and leadership in the American civil rights movement.
And each year, the month of February is dedicated to black history, an opportunity for students of all ages to learn more about the achievements of African-Americans throughout history.
It most certainly is a way to help our youth understand racial relations, but we can always, and should always, strive to do more.
Recently, Jessica Spradley, a Frederick Douglass Institute scholar in sociology at California University of Pennsylvania, spoke to a crowd about the importance of incorporating more education about race relations into the everyday classroom in the present. It’s an idea, we feel, that could make great change in understanding not only what has happened in the past, but how race is currently viewed in today’s society.
“All too often we don’t talk about race in education because we feel like kids are too young, or we feel like it’s a conversation that we shouldn’t have, or that we are in a post-racial society or that we need to be color blind,” Spradley said during her speech at Cal U.
She said we must start normalizing things that we haven’t always normalized, and we agree that time has certainly come. Although unquestionably important, it isn’t enough to just teach our youth about the events that have happened in the past.
It’s important for them to have a solid foundation of the events over previous decades to help them understand where we are as a multicultural society today. But we wholeheartedly agree with Spradley that we must find ways to continue that conversation with our children beyond historical events and make more of an effort to bridge the gap of any separation in areas we may not have noticed before.
If we can achieve that, we can reach a culture where every young person, despite the color of their skin, feels welcomed and “normal” in a classroom setting.
Spradley said too often, the subject becomes taboo in the classroom, and we certainly understand it is a subject that has proven at times to be a sensitive topic. But shying away or ignoring its existence is not the answer.
Instead, Spradley, suggested incorporating more materials into the curriculum that shows a multicultural nation. We agree that is a great start in helping students see a more unified community, rather than one that is separated by difference.
Every child deserves to have a dream and the opportunity to strive for a successful future. The more preconceived difference we can eliminate for them while they are young, the more confidence they will have to do the great things we know they all can do.
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