Phila. school mandate: African history
By Susan Snyder
Inquirer Staff Writer
In what could be a unique move nationally, the Philadelphia School District will require every high school student to take a separate course in African and African American history to graduate, beginning with this September's freshman class.
Both national and local officials said yesterday that they knew of no other district requiring such a course, particularly one focused on African history, for graduation.
The School Reform Commission voted unanimously in February to offer courses in both areas at every high school, and said it would consider making one or both courses a graduation requirement.
Yesterday, district officials confirmed that they would mandate a combined African and African American history course in the 185,000-student district, which is about two-thirds African American. The course becomes one of four required social-studies courses, just as important as American history, geography and world history.
"Given the history of this country and still given our problems of discrimination and racism, for all of our children to have a more accurate picture of history, a more complete picture of history, is important," said Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, who is African American.
But the move already has raised the ire of some parents, including Miriam Foltz, president of the Home and School Association at Baldi Middle School in the Northeast, who is white. "Are they seriously telling us that our kids won't graduate without this course? What an insult!
"There are other races in this city," Foltz said. "There are other cultures that will be very offended by this. How can you just mandate a course like this?"
District officials acknowledged that it would be better to have courses that adequately reflected all cultures, but that African and African American history for too long had been neglected.
"This isn't about being politically correct. It's about being comprehensive," said Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive officer. "We have a whole continent that has been absent from most of our textbooks."
James Nevels, chairman of the commission, acknowledged that the nation's Latino population was growing rapidly, and that the district soon might face a decision on how to adequately represent that group's culture.
"I guess the ideal I would love to see is a rich, diverse, textural and contextual history of all those who make up the fabric of America," Nevels said. "Short of that, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
Gregory Thornton, the district's chief academic officer, said the district had heard interest from other ethnic groups for the development of courses on Latino and Asian heritage.
"Those will be discussions for the future," Thornton said.
The new course likely will be taken by students in their sophomore year, Thornton said. The yearlong course, worth one of the 23.5 units required for graduation, will start with African history and cross over to African American history in January, he said.
The course will use the textbook The African American Odyssey by Darline Hine, and will start with origins of humanity, classical African civilizations, and early African leadership before moving into African Americans in colonial America, and African Americans and the Constitution. Eventually, students will learn about African Americans from the Civil War through civil rights and black nationalism.
Philadelphia appears to be at the forefront with the move, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for big city school districts. "Courses on the subjects are offered as electives in other cities," he said.
Molefi Kete Asante, a Temple University professor, author and national expert on Afrocentric education, said in a previous interview that he was not aware of any school district that required African history.
Philadelphia offers African American history as an elective in nearly a dozen high schools, and it is piloting an African history course, also an elective, in several schools. The Africa course was designed by Asante.
The decision to mandate the course comes nearly 38 years after a few hundred black students demonstrated at school district headquarters to demand courses in African American studies. The Nov. 17, 1967, demonstration was etched in city history when police, under the command of Commissioner Frank L. Rizzo, waded into the chanting, singing throng and began clubbing students after a few climbed on top of cars. The students scattered, bloodied and screaming, while their leaders were inside presenting their demands to Superintendent Mark Shedd. Shedd was sympathetic to student concerns, but Rizzo ousted him as soon as he became mayor a few years later.
In 1968, the school board mandated that African American history be woven into the curriculum. The district for decades has tried different ways of doing that, but for just as long, critics have said it has not gone far enough.
Link
I'm all for having electives in African History, but a requirment for graduation? Huh?
The Hispanic population is similar to the African-American population and is growing at a much faster rate.
Why not required courses in Mexican/Spanish history too?
By Susan Snyder
Inquirer Staff Writer
In what could be a unique move nationally, the Philadelphia School District will require every high school student to take a separate course in African and African American history to graduate, beginning with this September's freshman class.
Both national and local officials said yesterday that they knew of no other district requiring such a course, particularly one focused on African history, for graduation.
The School Reform Commission voted unanimously in February to offer courses in both areas at every high school, and said it would consider making one or both courses a graduation requirement.
Yesterday, district officials confirmed that they would mandate a combined African and African American history course in the 185,000-student district, which is about two-thirds African American. The course becomes one of four required social-studies courses, just as important as American history, geography and world history.
"Given the history of this country and still given our problems of discrimination and racism, for all of our children to have a more accurate picture of history, a more complete picture of history, is important," said Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, who is African American.
But the move already has raised the ire of some parents, including Miriam Foltz, president of the Home and School Association at Baldi Middle School in the Northeast, who is white. "Are they seriously telling us that our kids won't graduate without this course? What an insult!
"There are other races in this city," Foltz said. "There are other cultures that will be very offended by this. How can you just mandate a course like this?"
District officials acknowledged that it would be better to have courses that adequately reflected all cultures, but that African and African American history for too long had been neglected.
"This isn't about being politically correct. It's about being comprehensive," said Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive officer. "We have a whole continent that has been absent from most of our textbooks."
James Nevels, chairman of the commission, acknowledged that the nation's Latino population was growing rapidly, and that the district soon might face a decision on how to adequately represent that group's culture.
"I guess the ideal I would love to see is a rich, diverse, textural and contextual history of all those who make up the fabric of America," Nevels said. "Short of that, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
Gregory Thornton, the district's chief academic officer, said the district had heard interest from other ethnic groups for the development of courses on Latino and Asian heritage.
"Those will be discussions for the future," Thornton said.
The new course likely will be taken by students in their sophomore year, Thornton said. The yearlong course, worth one of the 23.5 units required for graduation, will start with African history and cross over to African American history in January, he said.
The course will use the textbook The African American Odyssey by Darline Hine, and will start with origins of humanity, classical African civilizations, and early African leadership before moving into African Americans in colonial America, and African Americans and the Constitution. Eventually, students will learn about African Americans from the Civil War through civil rights and black nationalism.
Philadelphia appears to be at the forefront with the move, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for big city school districts. "Courses on the subjects are offered as electives in other cities," he said.
Molefi Kete Asante, a Temple University professor, author and national expert on Afrocentric education, said in a previous interview that he was not aware of any school district that required African history.
Philadelphia offers African American history as an elective in nearly a dozen high schools, and it is piloting an African history course, also an elective, in several schools. The Africa course was designed by Asante.
The decision to mandate the course comes nearly 38 years after a few hundred black students demonstrated at school district headquarters to demand courses in African American studies. The Nov. 17, 1967, demonstration was etched in city history when police, under the command of Commissioner Frank L. Rizzo, waded into the chanting, singing throng and began clubbing students after a few climbed on top of cars. The students scattered, bloodied and screaming, while their leaders were inside presenting their demands to Superintendent Mark Shedd. Shedd was sympathetic to student concerns, but Rizzo ousted him as soon as he became mayor a few years later.
In 1968, the school board mandated that African American history be woven into the curriculum. The district for decades has tried different ways of doing that, but for just as long, critics have said it has not gone far enough.
Link
I'm all for having electives in African History, but a requirment for graduation? Huh?
The Hispanic population is similar to the African-American population and is growing at a much faster rate.
Why not required courses in Mexican/Spanish history too?
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