Black History Month not important

UpdateIII: Looks like the Canton Rep isn’t going to print my letter afterall. I just got an email from Gail Beck and she says that they don’t cover this particular high schoo. Oh well. It’s still going to be in the Times Reporter (not that it will make a difference, since no one in my town thinks there should be a Black History Month to begin with.

UpdateII: I just received this email from Little Miss’ history teacher (I’m withholding his name).

I would like to address some of the issues you have brought
to our attention. As a history educator, I try my best to
cover a broad range of cultures from African Imperialism to
the Cold War of the mid 20th century. We are a
standards-driven school who only want our students to
succeed. The mandates with which we have to work with can be
rigid at times and sometimes we lose focus of “the big
picture”. This should not be construed as an excuse, I am the one who is responsible for not setting time aside to
cover African-American history. For this I am truly sorry
and it was not meant to be intentional. Our administration
and department will be addressing this issue so that in the
future this situation will not happen again. If you have any
questions or concerns, please feel free to reply back to
this e-mail or call the school at (330)-

Yours in education

Update March 2: The Times Reporter just called me and said they were going to run my letter and that the Canton Repository will also run it (they are owned by the same company). Right on!

According to my daughter’s World Studies teacher (9th grade ) Black History month was not important enough to recognize. His exact words to her:
“The Ohio State Standards does not force me to address that topic and I didn’t think it was that important.”

This statement was in response to her question “Why didn’t we contribute to Black History Month?”(her words to him). My daughter is biracial and is very proud of her black heritage, so much so that she refers to herself simply “African-American” (leaving out the whole white half). And I was furious that this teacher would say such a thing to her. But wait, there’s more.

Little Miss asked another teacher why they didn’t even use one class period to recognize Black History Month. This teacher told her that the elementary schools and middle school did projects for the month, but there wasn’t enough time in high school. My daughter argued that there was enough time to study white history and wasn’t black history just as important to American history as the white? Her questions and arguments were brushed aside. She is in a very small minority in this school and the administration doesn’t seem to respect those few students at all.

She told me that they teach her that black people were slaves, but nothing else about there struggle during that period. They didn’t even discuss Martin Luther King, jr., though he is the most well-known African-American historical figure. There is not so much as a whisper about anyone else that has contributed to black American history. Some of Little Miss’ peers had no idea what Black History Month was, let alone any of the actual history. The ones that did seem to know something had not spent their academic careers in this school district.

I did write a letter to the editor’s of the Canton Repository and the Times Reporter, as well as the principal and World Studies teacher at that school. The following is what I wrote:

Yesterday marked the end of Black History Month in the State of Ohio. Many school districts in the state found reasons to recognize and celebrate America’s black pioneers, however High School did not even offer a single class period to celebrate this month.

My daughter is a freshman attending that school and asked her World Studies teacher why Black History Month was completely ignored when black history is so important to American history. He told her that “The Ohio State Standards does not force me to address this topic and I didn’t think it was that important.” However one whole class period was devoted to study hall because they “had nothing to do that day.” Another teacher told her that in high school they don’t have enough time to devote to Black History Month.

As a parent of a child of African-American heritage I am apalled by this attitude. This school district has a small number of minority children, still there seems to be a complete lack of respect for the importance of the African-American struggle in this country. My daughter, and others like her, would like to hear more about black history than “they were slaves” and “Martin Luther King, Jr. was a catalyst in the struggle for civil rights” (though they did not even pay tribute to that great man). For someone in her school to tell her that her history is “not important” is a slap in the face to all of those great African-Americans that should be honored during this month.

I would just like to say “shame on you!” to High School for finding so much American history “not important”.

Ok, so I could have proofed that a little better before I sent it out, but I had to keep it to 300 words or less for the papers. And I was- am- so angry that this man would look my daughter in the face and tell her that her history isn’t important enough to bother with, not even making an attempt to sugar coat it. It’s no wonder my daughter doesn’t feel like she’s a part of this school. To me this wasn’t just a flippant disregard for African-American history, but a complete and utter lack of respect for my daughter and her genuine need to know her heritage. Luckily for her I’ve made it a point to study it and relate what I know to her (though, as a white woman, I can’t really relate. She does have aunts that help her be a strong black woman).

There are so many things that I worry about every day, but this was low on my list until my daughter brought her issues home to me. I was one of those idiots that thought they taught black history right along side other American history- just because that’s where it belongs. The previous school district where my daughter attended elementary included black history through out the school year. I was naive to think that in all Ohio school systems this was typical. I guess I didn’t think of the small town with few black people. Now I know better. Today I was slapped back into reality.

I’m planning on moving out of this town- soon. If Dh wants to stay he can do it by himself. If you’re a minority and you thought about moving to a nice small town in Tuscarawas County Ohio please think twice. Your kids will benefit more if you just forget this place even exists.

_{Edited to remove the name of the high school to save Little Miss eternal embarassment.}