The Stories Told:
It’s clear who makes the rules, sets the guidelines, and is in charge. All of the stories being told are White, American stories. They are told by white people and portray that America is always the good guy or has always done the right things. It sucks that the majority of the history we learn is told from this point of view.
The Stories in the Margins:
The stories untold or in the margins are often silenced in historical education. Any race, religion, or political group that conflicts with the White, American way has sometimes been taught to be wrong or as an enemy. Did you hear about the 87(1) SB 3 bill? It was to remove “I have a dream”, The Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, Brown vs. Board, Frederick Douglas, Cesar Chavez and Dolares Huerta (probably more) from Texas public school curriculum. On December 2, 2021 this bill was passed and signed; I don’t understand why this was even a thought or a decision to make in the first place, seriously who thought of that…tt was Texas State Senate Bryan Hughes. I don’t know what curriculum will look like from here, but I know it won't be right.
The Fix:
As current or future educators, we should be fighting for this to stop. We should be encouraging teaching from all sides and all points of view. We will have students from all faces of the earth, so why are we suppressing Native American, Black, Hispanic, or any voices for that matter? Why do we focus on American history when 40.2% of Texas is Hispanic/Latino and 13.2% is Black/African American? (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/TX ) Obviously, we have to follow the TEKS and standards, but we can still have circle or sharing time where we encourage questions, comments, and any respectful discussion. Little by little, step by step, and voice by voice, if you agree, we could help fix and educate our students correctly.
Petition against SB 3:
https://www.change.org/p/bryan-hughes-keep-minority-history-in-the-texas-k-12-curriculum
Hi Mallory!! I love your Blog post and agree with some many of your points!! I agree that as future educators we should be fighting for this to stop, I think we have the power in this scenario and we need to use it. I agree with you that in our classroom we can open up more conversation and allow our students to think about those uncomfortable topics. Asking questions and bringing up whole class discussion will allow students to open up their horizons and continue that practice as they grow older. Overall, great job on this post and I look forward to hearing more from your Blog's!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I really hope more people agree and want to help make change! I want my future students to have a real education.
DeleteHello Molly, I really enjoyed your reading your blog. I have never heard about this bill until now and I'm so glad you brought it to my and others’ attention. It's really important to understand why the system is the way it is, because sometimes it differs from people’s opinions. I love how you are spreading awareness to this cause because it's something that needs to be talked about. I feel like in some ways people not involved in the school system believe that teachers are the ones making the choice of what is and is not being taught to students when sometimes that is not the case. I'm now interested in learning more about Texas and other states' law on education to figure out what and why some things are restricted. Overall, I really liked your blog and the way it was structured. I hope to read some more of your blogs soon.
ReplyDeleteHi Mallory, great post and amazing points made throughout the whole thing. I had heard that they were thinking about removing a lot of important things from the curriculum but a I had no idea they want to removed what was said in the bill. I also agree with you that it is outrageous to remove so much of the minority information because it will do so much harm to the future students along with many others. I signed the petition that you included in your post and I'll make sure to share it because more people need to be aware of the ridiculous changes they are planning to do to future education. I like that you included in your fit it section that while we have to follow TEKS we could find time to circle back and talk to our students or let them share what they have in their minds.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback! I too don't understand why they even considered moving such important topics. I hope things will be better when we become teachers.
DeleteHi Mallory, your blog this week was very well written and organized I really enjoyed reading it! Good job! I love that you went ahead and summarized the 3 curricula all schools teach (explicit, null, and hidden curriculum). I also liked the picture you included and how you put a link to a Venn diagram about those 3 curricula. I did not quite see the answer the the question while reading your blog (What is worth teaching?) and I’m really interested in knowing your answer. I think instead you just went in too depth about everything we learned in this weeks module (correct me if I am wrong). I do agree that with teachers leaving our important informations with a students education hurts them in the long run because they are missing out important events that occurred in history that may impact their understanding of the world they live in.
ReplyDelete