The American Future

In The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, Schlesinger writes "The new gospel condemns Crevecoeur’s vision of individuals of all nations melted into a new race in favor of an opposite vision: a nation of groups, differentiated in their ancestries, inviolable in their diverse identities. The contemporary ideal is shifting from assimilation to ethnicity, from integration to separatism. The ethnic upsurge has had some healthy consequences. The republic has at last begun to give long-overdue recognition to the role and achievements of groups subordinated and ignored during the high noon of male Anglo-Saxon dominance - women, Americans of the South and East European ancestry, black Americans, Indians, Hispanics, Asians. There is far better understanding today of the indispensable contributions minorities have made to American civilization." (pg. 77-78)

As I was reading this selection out of Multicultural Education, I was thinking about my own curriculum. I will always look at anything in education through the eyes of a social studies teacher; specifically a United States History and Human Geography teacher. If you look through the lenses that I see education through I have mixed feelings about this passage. Do I believe that there have been “healthy consequences” or the “ethnic upsurge?” (p. 78) Yes. The new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) set out by the state in 2010 have included the role and achievements of my minority groups. Specifically in the 8^th grade United States History course there was the inclusion of more African American, Hispanic and references (the addition of Crispus Attucks, first person to die in the American Revolution is a perfect example). However, with the addition of many of these new people and ethnic identities it has been at the expense of traditional American History people and events. Is this the right thing to do? Therein lies the debate. Do I think that people like James Madison, John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson’s contributions are far greater to our country than those of other women because I am white? Or because that is what my education taught me? And if so, is this something that I try and change about my own teaching as I teach these ideas to my students? In World Geography, it is easier to open up my students ideas to the contributions of other ethnic groups because that is what the class is all about. But still, I must be careful about how my own education influences the way I teach.

Later, Schlesinger goes on to say, “what students learn in schools vitally affects other arenas of American life – the way we see and treat other Americans, the way we conceive the purpose of the republic. The debate about the curriculum is a debate about what it means to be an American. What is ultimately at stake is the shape of the American future.” (pg. 78)

This increases the importance of WHAT I teach and HOW I teach it. I only see my students for 180 days a year. But what, Schlesinger says that what I teach can impact the future of America. That is a huge responsibility. One that I will consider when I begin to choose which ones of the TEKS I include and which ones I leave out.

References

Schlesinger, A. M.  (1992). The disuniting of America: Reflections on a multicultural society.  In J. Noel    (Ed.), Multicultural Education (77-80).  New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

A Single Story

As I watched Chimamanda Adichie talk about her “single story” on the video last week it really struck me. This is something I see in my classroom everyday. My students often times have a “single story” about a place, about a conflict or issue. This becomes most apparent when I begin asking them about different regions of the world as a pre-test just to get an idea of what they know. I can ask them about a specific region and they can only tell me what they have seen on TV. And last week, as I was watching this video, it struck me that if I don’t teach them another story, they will never know anything different. And that’s more harmful than teaching them nothing at all, and that is when I began to understand that perhaps more important than teaching my students the prescribed TEKS, my job is to teach them another story about every region of the world.

So, the next day, in my classroom, I showed my students another story, about a country in SW Asia (the unit I am teaching now.) It was a short video about the small country of Qatar, located on the Persian Gulf; it talks about how this country is using the oil money to develop their country. The government is paying for better health care, better education and better infrastructure. They have changed their dictatorship to a democracy. However, most important to me, they are empowering women to be educated and have a say in society, perhaps a radical way to think in this part of the world. You can see the videos here. Part 1 and Part 2.  With these videos, and the discussion after, I was able to create another story about this country for my students.

Then, on Tuesday evening of this week, as I was reading my timeline on facebook and twitter I noticed a video that was beginning to go viral. The KONY2012 video had been released on Monday and by Tuesday it was all over facebook and twitter. I had at least 6 friends who re-posted it. I watched it that night and decided to show it in my world geography classes the next day after our test. 

My students were ready to act after having seen the video, and I encouraged it. But then I decided that I too had only a single story on this issue. During my conference period that day I began to research online about Kony and the Invisible Children organization. On a blog that I read all the time I found this post. This was where my research began. As I went through these links, reading the information they provided, I began to put together different stories about this organization and the fight against Kony. And although I have not had an opportunity to discuss this in all of my classes, it is important that I create a different story about this very issue for my students as well.

Then, my world and research came full circle, when Rachel Held Evans posted this video on her blog. And it a complete reminder that it is our job to teach our students more than a single story about a place. Perhaps my job, as a world geography teacher, more than anyone else.