Posted on 07/28/2003 7:51:11 PM PDT by Lunatic Fringe
OBERLIN, Ohio, Updated 1:33 p.m. EDT July 28, 2003 -- A group of parents said they will fight a possible decision to allow a white teacher to lead classes in black history at Oberlin High School.
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NewsChannel5 reported that a scheduling conflict could cause the district to reassign the black teacher who has taught the course for seven years.
Using a white teacher at Oberlin High School would send the wrong message to black students, said A.G. Miller, an associate professor of American and African religious history at Oberlin College.
"The message is that we are not concerned about the importance of your historical background ... that that is less important than a schedule conflict," said Miller, whose three children graduated from Oberlin High School.
Jaqui Willis, a black Oberlin parent, said the teacher is a role model and that removing him from the class would be detrimental to students.
The parents have protested the move to the school board, but the district's superintendent, Beverly Reep, has not commented on the case. Reep told parents at a school board meeting that scheduling issues would be addressed this week.
Schools and community leaders in the Cleveland area are split over the issue of whether blacks should be the only ones to teach black history.
In Cleveland, white and black teachers teach black history. A black teacher teaches black history at Shaker Heights High School, but a white teacher handles classes on oppression and human relations, both which deal extensively with race relations and slavery.
Little research has been done to determine whether same-race teachers lead to higher achievement by minority students. Ronald Ehrenberg, director of Cornell University's Higher Education Research Institute, said many researchers steer clear of the topic out of fear of being attacked.
Michael Williams, interim director of Cleveland State University's black studies program, said schools should choose a black teacher if that person is most qualified, not just because the teacher happens to be black.
If two teachers are equally qualified, Williams gives the edge to the black teacher.
"That person still has the advantage of the culture," said Williams, who is black. "They understand the nuances of the culture."
Phyllis Yarber Hogan, a member of the Oberlin Black Alliance for Progress, said a white teacher wouldn't be well-suited to teaching students about subjects like slavery.
"When you talk about slavery, students need to understand it is not our fault," she said. "Our ancestors did nothing wrong to be enslaved.
"How do you work through that when the person teaching it is the same type of person who did the enslaving?"
Perhaps. If the class is as we expect, probably not...but there could be a class by that title that would be perfectly valuable. Real history could be taught.
I learned somethings this summer that I wasn't aware of. At the Air Force Museum, I noticed long ago from one of the framed papers that one of the Eulogists for Wilbur Wright was G. W. Carver from Tuskeegee. I also knew that poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar was from Dayton. What I didn't know was how intertwined Dunbar was with the Wright brothers. Dunbar was a classmate of Orville at Dayton's Central High School, where he was editor of the school paper and President of the literary club. Dunbar graduated from the High School, but ironcially, neither Wright Brother did. The Wright brothers, several times put up money or services early on to get Dunbar started in various writing projects, including giving him the remaining "newspaper funds" to try to start a paper when they moved on to their bicycle and aerodynamics works. There are verses written on the Wright Brothers shop wall for Orville by Dunbar.
Dunbar rode in the Inauguration Parade with McKinley, and Teddy Roosevelt at one point made him an "honorary Colonel for a day".
For a time, Dunbar was an Assistant Librarian at the Library of Congress.
I did know, however, that black Americans were commonplace in federal service until the Wilson Administrations "Back to the Cornrows" policy, where blacks were dismissed from federal employment in all non-servile jobs.
I bring this up, because it is contrary to most of what is taught about U.S. history in regards blacks.
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