In order for a community-based curriculum for Black History Month to be successful, there are several objectives which must be addressed, not only during February, which is officially Black History Month, but throughout the year.
The four main objectives of a successful program are 1) embracing community involvement, 2) raising awareness to African-American issues, 3) educating about the past, from slavery through the Civil Rights movement, while preparing for the future, and 4) developing a program which will continue to grow and prosper after the month of February. Any flourishing curriculum program will include elements of history, sociology, community service, and to a lesser degree, event planning and business management.
There are several existing programs worth reviewing as examples of successful community–based curriculum ventures. The organizations may have possibly started in February, but developed into worthwhile and successful year-round entities.
RAMP
In the Pittsburgh (PA) region, a volunteer organization called RAMP (Raising Achievement in Monroeville and Pitcairn) has embraced the concept of community involvement by forming a group dedicated to closing the academic achievement gaps which exist between subgroups of students. According to their mission statement, this is created by raising achievement in their students while creating an environment that believes in them. Within their organization, they have created several programs including community gatherings, tutoring sessions and incentive programs which reward students for raising their report card grades by one letter grade or more.
Arthur Ashe Children’s Program
In Washington, DC, the Arthur Ashe Children’s Program, named for the late tennis star and human rights activist, serves over 450 at-risk students in 20 DC schools, combining academics with athletics and life skills. The program reaches students from early elementary through high school and includes student projects which topics such as “The Marketing of Tennis Apparel,” “How to do Stock Analysis,” and “Pollution and the Environment” Combined with a strenuous tennis instruction session along with a Reading is Fundamental (RIF) literacy program, the programs, run through the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation, boast a 100% college acceptance rate for its seniors who have worked through the WTEF Center for Excellence.
History Lesson at the Apollo Theater
In New York City, Columbia University’s Oral Research Office and the Apollo Theater Foundation have joined forces to document and preserve the history of the world-famous theater, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2009 and is known as a centerpiece of the Harlem Renaissance movement. The Oral Research Office has produced more than 150 hours of interviews with Apollo performers such as Smokey Robinson and Leslie Uggams, while also interviewing important black community leaders in Harlem to develop a program which also integrates the history of theater as well as the Harlem neighborhood into one curriculum program.
Columbia has also added three online resources. MAAP, short for Mapping the African-American past, combines interview material with photos and maps among its archives. The Amistad Digital Resource has been developed to assist teachers, while Columbia’s Black History Month Web site looks back on the university’s initiatives and work in research projects as they relate to recent African-American history.
Community-based curriculum starts at school
Successful curriculum programs take advantage of the school as a community learning center, available for all members of a neighborhood. Forming its building blocks toward the young school age student, but looking to develop lifelong learners, there are many resources available to build a curriculum for Black History Month. For example, at Scholastic.com, an entire section of its website is dedicated to lesson plans, activities and instructional guides for the teacher to use for planning purposes. Lessons include “All That Jazz” and “Black History Math Hunt.”
Comment: I do like your tenets for the African American History curriculum, as in the four main focus of the curriculum. As a history teacher, who is there to say that this is just merely African American History? A majority of the experience is intertwined in what is called U.S. History.
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge difference between discussing African American culture and addressing African American issues. When African American issues are addressed, it is the result of government intervention, or lack thereof in the past 300 years.
This does not affect solely African Americans but anyone of color or difference. I learned a long time ago that history is written by the winners. Never will an American learn or read an unbiased analysis of World War II from a German historian. That goes the same for African American history. Some colleagues believe it is intertwined with U.S. History while others see an entirely different subject.
When you mention Lil Wayne, where does he fit? Is Wayne Carter part of the African American culture or an African American issue (example: street life)? That certainly ties beautifully into the marketing goals. He has certainly mainstreamed into suburbs. There is certainly a historical link, in fact several, when marketing and race is concerned: Michael Jackson. It is fitting that MTV is celebrating its 30th birthday next month; I wonder if they will mention the fact Michael Jackson broke the color barrier on MTV? Again, it is all about the goals and ideas others have in mind.
When music is discussed as well, an important lesson to emphasize is the drum. Drums have been used in Sub Saharan Africa to communicate. As a community at large, we have lost the message from ancestry.
In order to change, enhance the African American experience, an overhaul of history standards and standardized testing needs to be accomplished. For example, VA SOL teaches the impact of the Civil War. Now I am not suggesting that the War was not important at all. When it is discussed, formulated into the curriculum, African Americans are viewed as victims. This is a continuous pattern well into the Civil Rights Movement. That is 100 years of history, decided by the powers, where African Americans are portrayed as the victim.
Question: who develops the African American history curriculum? Because of the treatment of African American life and culture throughout history, there are few African American historians. Also, every cultural group has been westernized by Europeans that a great deal of ideals and values are solely Euro centric. There are experts from all walks of life, with regard to race or gender.