Illinois has added an extra year of math to its high school graduation requirements, and Nevada lawmakers have saved that state’s merit-based scholarship program. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia,
City high school students will be required to take a class in African and African American history to graduate, a move that education experts believe is unique in the nation.
Indeed. In fact, it might even be unique in the known universe.
Can it be long before Los Angeles requires a year of Mexican history?
I tried to find some books on African history about 6 years ago. There was NOTHING available by historians. I found one book in the Cornell Univeristy Bookstore on African History. The book ended with the end of European colonialism, about 1960’s. The book was mostly about the European impact.
I found no books written by respectable academics on contempory African politics, ie. events since 1980.
The only books on contemporary Africa I have found are writen by newsmen who have spent a few years there and write about what they saw.
This is pathetic, of course, but who is to blame? When I wrote and complained to the author of the book above, the publishing house wrote back and said this book has been an inspiration of thousands of people. Huh?
You would think with all these African studies departments we have these days in our universities, one of these academics would actually take an interest in contempory African and write a book aobut it.
So, it will be interesting to see how they teach contemporary Africa to these students. I have no idea where they will get the material. Newspapers and magazines?
” In fact, it might even be unique in the known universe.”
Really? I would be surprised if places in africa didn’t require african history.
actus,
Really? I would be surprised if places in africa didn’t require african history.
You mean, in the sense that we require North American history (not)? Africa is rather a large place.
Besides, John’s quote said “African and African American history,” which is somewhat different.
No wonder,mayor Of Philadelphia John Street has been known as not only the worst mayor among all in the United States, but also as the mayor who spreaded up corruption throughout the city and oppressed the white population.
No wonder,mayor Of Philadelphia John Street has been known as not only the worst mayor among all in the United States, but also as the mayor who spreaded up corruption throughout the city and oppressed the white population.
“‘There are other races in this city,’ said Foltz, who is white. ‘There are other cultures that will be very offended by this.'”
A, why should other cultures be offended, and B, as far as I know black kids are expected to sit through European history, at least as it pertains to American history. As long as it’s not a bunch of Hate Whitey crap, and there’s no reason so far to think that it is, I don’t know why kids of all races couldn’t be interested and benefit. After all, African history, like European history and Asian history, is the history of the human race. It’s not like the kids are being required to memorize the life cycle of Martians.
My daughter tells me that it occurs to her that her “world history” courses so far have abandoned Africa after the origin of man. They did study China, however, which our “world history” courses did not.
African American History should be studied within an American History class – if necessary the schools can expand the course out to a year-and-a-half or two years to incorporate more material.
I don’t see anything wrong, though, with an African History class, other than that, as John alluded to, resources might be better spent on the basics like math and reading. When I was in high school (about 15 years ago) we had World Studies I, which covered essentially the European colonization of Africa, Asia, and Latin America; World Studies II, which focused on the ancient Greeks and Romans; U.S. History; and, as an elective, AP European History. I would have welcomed a course focused on Africa.
Laura: The point is: a requirement for graduation?
At least European History shows the foundation upon which the West, including the US, is built. Our political structures, government, economics … and, since we live in the dominant Western nation, it’s, well, just a bit relevant, dont’cha think? I don’t know — is European History a requirement for graduation in Philly?
No one I know would object to elective courses such as those proposed. Making them grad. requirements, especially with Philly’s problems with basic skills, is inane.
” No wonder,mayor Of Philadelphia John Street has been known as not only the worst mayor among all in the United States”
I left philly in 2000, around his election. I recently visited, and things were doing quite fine.
Actus,
You are making the mistake of generalizing your own personal experience to the world at large. Something we all do from time-to-time.
Eugene was not stating a personal opinion about Mayor Street he was stating a fact. Mayor Street has become know as one of the 3 worst mayors in the United States. He received that honor from Time magazine.
http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_107101512.html
Now whether Mayor Street is a horrible mayor or not is a point you could argue but he is definitely known as one of the worst mayors whether that is true or not.
Cheers,
“Really? I would be surprised if places in africa didn’t require african history”
That’s really a vignette, actus, perfectly characterizing the trait commonly known as “compulsive retort”, set off by knee-jerk leftism in your case.
“I left philly in 2000, around his election. I recently visited, and things were doing quite fine”
Oh God, please tell me you’re kidding. Go just one block on either side of Broad street and you’ll see filth that rivals Baghdad. The crime rate is scandalous. No one will even dare to leave their homes after dark in most of the city. Gangs of black teenagers hang around ATM machines ready to pounce on anyone who withdraws money. We call them wolf-packs. The Inquirer’s response was to decry the word as racist. A security camera picked up one pack beating up a middle aged man, then returning to shoot him.
Everyone in Philly wants to leave, and anyone with a college education tries to move to Jersey, like I did. And there is no bottom in sight.
Mayoral elections are nightmares. When Rizzo and Rendell were running, the black radio stations openly complained about “the kike and the wop”. There are so many election violations that even newspapers won’t bother reporting on them.
I was born and raised in the inner city, a section called Swampoodle. The section was poor but there was no crime at all. Doing quite fine? You’re out of your mind.
Dom
“Go just one block on either side of Broad street and you’ll see filth that rivals Baghdad. ”
I was in west philly, and things were much better than they had been when I left. And more expensive too.
“Really? I would be surprised if places in africa didn’t require african history”
I would be shocked if they did. It’s a rather African-American conceit to treat “Africa” as some sort of undifferentiated place.
And Laura — we were required to study American history and World history, but never European history. (It was an option, but not a requirement.)
David, in my day “World History” was European history. I really wondered about that. We retreaded the same material in middle school and high school, and it was the very same stuff in college when I took Western Civ (required), only more in-depth.
“It’s a rather African-American conceit to treat ‘Africa’ as some sort of undifferentiated place.” Some time back I read, or heard on the radio, about a black male model in New York or somewhere, whose agent told him Johannesburg was a happenin’ place for black male models. (Which I thought was a significant indicator of the way the new South Africa is viewed in the rest of the world.) He discussed his experiences, including his surprise at learning that there is no country called Africa; that Africa is in fact a continent with several different countries on it. This was a grown man, in his 30’s.
Maybe African American history is necessary since most texts and most history lessons offer only a tautologous, nationalist view of this country’s past. Most texts completely disregard the acts of aggression, which has been a major part of this country’s history – by manipulating, negotiating, and even waging brutal warfare to wrest it from its inhabitants – but little do we see this in our texts. Not exactly a history of plebescite. As such, much of this aggression was repeated on extant and subsequent inhabitants: Mexicans, African Americans, Asians, Italians, etc. To me personally, it is important that we consider and learn about all of our people’s history – and we should not be ashamed to reveal this country’s dark past by ignoring diverse historical perspectives. Oh, and one last point: obviously, African Americans make about half of Philadelphia’s population; if it’s compulsory for all of the county’s students to get educated on the Europeans’ “path to power” in this country, shouldn’t they be required to learn about the African American’s path, their experiences, etc. in this country? Wouldn’t it contribute to a more accurate understanding of US history?
“…most texts and most history lessons offer only a tautologous, nationalist view of this country’s past.”
That’s not the case around here. My daughter told me that each chapter in her American History textbook included a section on how black Americans and/or Indians were oppressed in that particular segment of history. I realize and agree that we have to tell the bad stories with the good, and I’ve expressed to my child on more than one occasion that the truth has to come out. But I have to wonder what the effect is on black kids who are coming along now in the 21st century, to read about this stuff all the time. It seems to me that it’s got to short-circuit any chance they had of being happy to be Americans, and set them up for expectations of oppressions which frequently are self-fulfilling prophecies. I don’t know what the answer is.
“to read about this stuff all the time” – don’t we read (or rather, supposed to read) American history throughout the extent of our primary, secondary and post secondary education? Don’t we revere Washington, homas, Franklin, etc.? How much time is spent on African American and Hispanic leaders who were instrumental in bringing about civil rights to this country? I’m not against reading about the fellows who came to America and branded this nation a beacon of freedom (although the protections of liberties and freedome really didn’t come to fruition until this past century), but I think that our curriculum requires a holistic perspective. I also know that our curriculum has changed and improved but I don’t see requiring the study of other histories and cultures as an effect to “set them up for expectations of oppressions which frequently are self-fulfilling prophecies.” – is that what happened to the dominant majority in this country? Did the constant reverance and idolization of European discoverers set THEM up for expectations that are self-fulfilling prophecies. Can this explain some of this country’s aggression?
David, in my day “World History” was European history.
I’ll grant that it was Eurocentric — but we covered ancient civilizations in Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, the Americas, China, India. We covered the rise of Islam, and eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. We discussed Native American cultures. (Admittedly, its coverage of sub-Saharan Africa was pretty sparse, except in terms of Look How Mean the White European Males were when they conquered the poor Africans and established their empires.)
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Maybe African American history is necessary since most texts and most history lessons offer only a tautologous, nationalist view of this country’s past. Most texts completely disregard the acts of aggression, which has been a major part of this country’s history – by manipulating, negotiating, and even waging brutal warfare to wrest it from its inhabitants – but little do we see this in our texts.
Apparently you haven’t picked up a Social Studies textbook in the last, say, 50 years. They’re more PC than a Howard Zinn textbook. They cover extensively the enslavement of blacks, the mistreatment of Indians, the internment of Japanese, the oppression of women, the civil rights era…
David, your schooling was more inclusive than mine was. I graduated from high school in 1978 and I think it was a different world then.
I think what flew over me in that article was the impression I got that Miriam Foltz, president of the Home and School Association at Baldi Middle School, thought that black people were just too icky for white kids to have to read about. Maybe she was misquoted or taken out of context.