Today the Georgia Public Broadcasting released an article
entitled: Georgia Scores An 'A' On Civil
Rights Education; Many States 'Woefully Inadequate.' Upon seeing and
reading this article, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share.
From my understanding of the reading, states are graded. The article did not
list the criteria, but states are assessed based on how schools educate their
students about the struggle of civil rights in America. In the article, the
Southern Poverty Law Center appears to play a vital role in the assessment by
looking at how schools promote civil rights education from grade K-12. For
those who did not know, according to the Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties (Volume
1), the Southern Poverty Law Center is a civil rights and educational nonprofit
organization. Founded in 1971 as a civil rights firm, it has dealt with a great
deal of adversity.
In the article, the spokesperson for the Southern Poverty
Law Center, Maureen Costello mentioned how southern states scored the highest in
covering the Civil Rights Movement as well as states with large
African-American populations. Here are the “grades” the article provided:
Three
states received an ‘A’—Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina
14 states
received a ‘D’
20 states
received an ‘F’
The article also states, “That list includes five states-
Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Oregon and Wyoming- that neither cover the movement in
their state standards nor provide resources to teach it. The report found that
despite the national significance of the civil rights movement, many states
continue to mistakenly see it as a regional matter, or a topic of interest
mainly for black students.” While it is interesting to see how states are
graded, I am very hesitant about this whole article and the grading measures. Yes, ensuring that the youth is being taught about the Civil Rights Movement is
vital to their education and our nation’s well being. However, the fact this
article can report that many states continue to mistake the movement as a
“regional matter” or “topic of interest mainly for black students” is
outrageous. Perhaps I am interpreting this article incorrectly, but to see
almost 50% of nation receiving an ‘F’ for the coverage of the Civil Rights
Movement makes me a little uneasy because this was a movement that was most
definitely more than just “The South.” On the other hand, one of the bigger
questions that we have mentioned in class is: how much exposure of the Civil
Rights Movements do you allow K-12 students, and what type of precedent do you
set for the education of future students?
To access the article: http://www.gpb.org/news/2014/03/05/georgia-scores-an-a-on-civil-rights-education-many-states-woefully-inadequate
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ReplyDeleteHaving attended half of my US exposure to K-12 in Florida, I remember an argument that is always brought up among Southerners: is Florida a truly a Southern state?
ReplyDeleteHearing Ta-Nehisi Coates's recounting of Florida's lynching statistics blew that question out of the water (if you attended the lecture, you know what I'm talking about). With that said, my exposure to what we have identified as a sanitized Civil Rights Movement--the master narrative, that is--only came about in February each year. It was not a topic that was addressed outside of the month of February. The sanitized version that I was spoon-fed in elementary school made slavery=bad, Civil Rights=good, and now everyone is happy, let's go on with standardized tests in March. I, too, am interested in the criteria used in the grading system and scale that allows Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina to have received such high marks. More importantly, I am interesting in know who created the test and what is the emphasis of the test; are students/schools graded on dates and events? is there an understanding of the effects of the CRM? who administers the test/grading? which schools, school systems, or companies profit from this test (monetarily, status, or otherwise)?
Furthermore, I'm also interested in what the high scoring states, school systems, and schools are doing to teach the CRM. I'm skeptical about the grading model, but if I were convinced about it being a legitimate grading system (here lies my skepticism) I would like to know what schools could do to improve the way that the CRM is taught. If I could have my way, there would be enough funding allocated to make a yearly mandatory school trip to the National Civil Rights Museum for all students in the TN school system for students to get a rich and mulch-faceted understanding of the fight for civil rights. It is an embarrassment that schools from out of state bring their students to the NCLM in charter buses, yet we have such undersourced schools that many Memphians grow up and have never been to the NCLM.
I think it is a very interesting topic. The Civil Rights Movement is a major component in American History, however, it is also full of subjects that are in all honesty, probably too complicated for many elementary-aged students to comprehend. Coming from a private liberal-arts school we had a different curriculum from public schools and were able to study the CRM for half of a semester - which comparing to how long we spend on other topic a lot. Of course we had had some exposure to the movement before, but as a senior in high school I felt like I was much better able to comprehend various consequences and was told a fuller story - not just the pretty master narrative that would be appropriate for elementary school children. There were social reasons for what happened and economic and political justifications for horrific actions that I would not have been able to understand at a younger age. So, in my opinion, it's not just the question of how much grade students are taught about CRM, but when.
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