Posted on 06/09/2005 1:59:34 PM PDT by americaprd
Three decades after students demanding African-American studies in city schools clashed with police, the district will require all high schoolers to take a full-year course on the subject.
Philadelphia, whose public schools are two-thirds black, may be the first U.S. school district to require the class.
"I think it's a promise that we are many, many years late in filling," said Cecilia Cannon, an assistant superintendent for curriculum. "We have the opportunity ... to do something under our watch that is really going to do right by our students. To say, 'We've come from some pretty great places.'"
The course in African and African-American studies, now offered as an elective at 11 of the city's 54 high schools, has captivated students who have taken it, teachers say.
At nearly all-black Strawberry Mansion High School, a top student in the African-American studies class was chosen as the subject of a $360 genetic test designed to help blacks trace their roots back to Africa. James Sullivan, a senior, learned the bittersweet news that his maternal family descends from the Ibo tribe in Nigeria, and that they came to the U.S. as slaves.
"There were tears in his eyes, but joy also," said Principal Lois Powell Mondesire, who said other students are now interested in genetic testing.
National education groups said they did not know of other districts that require black studies, now a high-profile academic field on college campuses such as Harvard and Cornell.
But urban school leaders will no doubt be watching the Philadelphia experiment. School districts in California, Massachusetts and elsewhere have called to ask for details, Philadelphia officials said.
"School districts all across the country try all kinds of different things to engage the kids and improve student performance," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 65 large urban school districts. "So this will be of interest, but it won't necessarily create a stampede in this direction."
Philadelphia students must take three other social studies courses to meet state requirements and five electives to graduate. The new class, designed for 10th graders, will be mandatory and reduce the number of electives to four.
"I think if we have to take African-American history as a mandatory class, that we should have it open to other cultures: Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans," said Briggitte Rodriguez, 14, a freshman at Philadelphia High School for Girls, which is 62 percent black. "It's a big world. You have to think about everyone else, too."
Some schoolmates disagree.
"They usually just focus on African-American history in February, and it should be all year-round," said Victoria Pertell, who is black.
The push for African-American studies in the city dates back to at least November 1967, when a few hundred students demonstrating outside a school board meeting clashed with police. Under the direction of then-Police Commissioner Frank L. Rizzo, officers clubbed some of the singing students after a few climbed atop cars.
The district's 210,000 students are about 67 percent black, 14 percent Latino, 14 percent white and 5 percent Asian. Three years after a state takeover that brought reform-minded schools chief Paul Vallas from Chicago, test scores are up and new buildings are planned to replace crumbling schools, although violence continues to erupt.
School leaders hope the course will not only keep black students interested in their academic work, but also give other students a more accurate view of history.
"It has an impact on our African-American children, but it also affects children from other cultures. Their perception is often skewed," said Sandra Dungee Glenn, a member of the five-person School Reform Commission that unanimously approved of the requirement this spring.
With a better understanding of each other and history, students will have the "opportunity for better understanding in schools and in the community."
"the district will require all high schoolers to take a full-year course on the subject."
They must have figured out that if this class were elective, no one would take it-of any color.
I would love to see the curriculum.
A full year on George Washington Carver; one day on George Washington.
A FULL YEAR???!!!
Lessee...
World History - 1 year
Greek-1 month
Other Ancient - 1 month
Roman - 1 month
Asian - 1 month
The evils of early Christianity - 1 month
The evils of the Catholic Church (AKA, the reformation) - 1 month
The Age of exploration - 1 month
Hitler, Stalin, and the evils of American foreign policy - 1 month
China, India, Japan, Indochina, etc. - 1 month
AFRICAN HISTORY - 1 year
AMERICAN HISTORY (a.k.a., bitching about Whitey) - 1 year
Yeah, that seems about right.
They should be required to read a dictionary first.
"African and African-American studies, now offered as an elective at 11 of the city's 54 high schools, has captivated students who have taken it"
"Captivated" is probably not a good word to use when talking about Afro-American history.
Of course, notice that excludes the "dark ages," so all people will know about the Christian era is its downfall (the enlightenment).
I would agree that all Philadelphia kids should learn about how the Arab Muslims enslaved African Blacks themselves centuries before a single slave stepped foot in America, and then invented the international slave trade. Perhaps they can also learn how Muslims continue to keep millions in labor and sexual slavery to this very day. Perhaps they can also learn how it was the Western Whites who eliminated slavery, first in Britain, and then in America, whereas even a nation as modernized as Saudi Arabia permits slavery today.
Did you make it to the fourth paragraph?
It's absolutely fascinating that they can do this. Amazing!
"I think if we have to take African-American history as a mandatory class, that we should have it open to other cultures: Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans," said Briggitte Rodriguez, 14, a freshman at Philadelphia High School for Girls, which is 62 percent black. "It's a big world. You have to think about everyone else, too."
Just wait, Briggitte. I'm sure those courses are on the way as well.
Shoot.
They won't touch Carver.
He's an Uncle Tom to any afrocentrist. He and Booker T.
Well that would be part of it. If they are going to teach this and make it required, it should start from ancient to modern after the classical model. Not all of black history is hacking eachother. There are lots of good things to learn. About the hacking to pieces, focusing on Rwanda and modern day slavery would be very interesting.
The historical debate in black education has been "technical" (to teach a field of study which can be applied for gain) versus "classical" (to teach a classical education to build high character). At long last, the dilemma is ended by the genius of the public schools: "useless".
"If you can teach kids about some medieval European king with no affect on this country, might as well teach them about Asian emperors and African kings."
I can't believe they are wasting a year of schoolwork on this nonsense when the majority of kids coming out of those schools can barely write a coherent sentence or do basic math. It is criminal to focus on afrocentric history when they are not learning the basics.
Career path: (1) a year of Black history; (2) major in Ethnic Studies, (3) "You want fries with that?"
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