Posted on 06/09/2005 1:59:34 PM PDT by americaprd
"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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