I once heard Greg Alan-Williams speak to a group of students at a Park District event at the South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago. Williams, a former Baywatch ‘water safety professional’, was in town to play Martin Luther King in The Meeting, a play directed by Chuck Smith about a mythical meeting between Dr. King and Malcom X. Williams was speaking to students about overcoming obstacles to achieve dreams. He was sharing a story about discrimination he had faced building his career as an African-American actor, and a teen said, “That’s not fair. They should do something about that.” Williams answered “Who’s they? You are they? You have the power to act and make change.”
I’m faced with a “they should do something about that” of my own right now as I look at what feels like a very ethnocentric curriculum at my child’s school. As “they” I’m working to set up an Intercultural Advisory Committee to help provide resources for teachers to weave multiple perspectives into class lessons…So that books to teach reading are written by authors of different cultural backgrounds. So that spring art projects move beyond bunnies and leprechauns for inspiration to perhaps draw on fantastic Spring festivals from around the world, or so that fall Thanksgiving lessons highlight the universality of the harvest and giving thanks.
While I also will be happy to set up an International Day as one parent suggested, or provide ideas for Black History Month or Hispanic Heritage Month, as others might expect from this kind of committee, I’d like to see a new paradigm that that moves beyond a day or month that is separate, but rather one that automatically blends multiple perspectives into core learning, so that Neil Armstrong and Mae Jemison and Ellen Ochoa would all automatically be included in a lesson on space travel, or a lesson on American Poetry would seamlessly include Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Frost, and Khalil Gibran.
Really, your last paragraph resonates with me. We have to get away from this mentality of having “ethnic appreciation day/week/month.” It almost encourages people to have a tourist mentality about learning about other cultures. In some ways I think it serves to keep people from making that step toward “blending multiple perspectives into core learning.” We still have a long way to go.
Thank you for this post. I have been having similar reactions to my (significantly younger) sister’s high school education at a private prep school. When I saw her at Thanksgiving, I asked her what books she had been reading in English. She – a sophomore – rattled off the usual canon – Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens. I immediately asked, “Have you read any female authors?” Her response was, “No, because we’re studying 18th Century British literature.” This left me feeling very glum. I tried to give her a quick history lesson, tossing out names like Bronte, Austen, Shelly, Wollstonecraft, but she hadn’t realized these authors were of the same era and ilk as the male authors she’d been reading for class.
So far, all I’ve done is buy her a small personal library of books by women authors, both from 18th Century Great Britain and from contemporary U.S. (Neale Hurtson, Morrison, Atwood, Walker) as well as some strong-women non-fiction short stories (like the funny and inspiring book “That Takes Ovaries!”). Reading books by and about women – especially teenage women – was a source of comfort, intrigue and mind-expansion when I was her age, and I am pretty appalled that in 2008 a prep school’s English department has their female students reading only male authors. It’s insidiously alienating to a teenage girl’s experience of herself as well as her experience of what women are capable of contributing to literature (etc.).
Your post reminds me that I can and should do more. Harping on her to read the books I bought her will only do so much. I want her to STUDY books by women authors. And prior to reading your post, I admit, I thought to myself, “I really can’t do anything about this.” Reaching out to her headmaster as well as the head of her school’s English department and perhaps even trying to get in touch with other parents (I live in a different state thab my sister) might help. I really appreciate knowing there are concerned parents/relatives of school kids out there who are trying to make a difference in educational curricula. Thanks for the inspiration!