Why do so few KC teachers want to teach the truth about Black history in America?
A Kansas City group, Races United, wants to help educators here do a better job teaching school children the truth about the Black experience in America since 1619, when the first Africans arrived here in chains.
And even though the group hired the best professor of Black history they could find in Missouri to lead The R.E.A.L. Project, and plans to pay a stipend to teachers who show up, they have struggled to fill the room. They are hoping for at least 40 teachers and have only signed up half that many.
That could be because it’s summer and teachers are burned out and not so eager for more professional development. But some who have signed up said they believe it’s probably because of all the controversy Republican legislators have created with their efforts to stop educators from teaching certain aspects of American history by banning critical race theory. Bingo!
The Races United Facebook page says the purpose of The R.E.A.L. Project is to dismantle “miseducation of Black American history,” and “rethink how Black history is taught in primary and secondary schools.” I’m pretty sure the critical race theory-banning crowd has made some educators reluctant to step up.
The ban is a scare tactic of legislators who are desperate to ensure that our history continues to be told through the lens of white America.
Some of them may truly believe that slavery and the oppression of Black Americans has no bearing on their current positions of power — that systemic racism does not exist. Or they’d rather not admit it. Some believe the intent of critical race theory is to make white children feel guilty and make Black children feel inferior. God help the children who are both. Yet others see an opportunity to rally support for their own political career by pushing a false narrative to create an even more polarized voter base. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter why they’re stirring up trouble over critical race theory. Because there is no good reason not to teach the truth.
It’s clear from the events of last summer, after the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a white cop, that the nation is in the midst of a reckoning on race. Millions of Americans are starved for knowledge about what it means to be Black in America.
That lesson has to start in our classrooms. And school districts ought to make sure their educators are prepared to give students the full scope of this country’s history rather than continue reiterating the Eurocentric view we’ve all been taught and now know was incomplete.
Our children deserve that and parents should demand it.
Critical race theory rejects the belief that what’s in the past is in the past and that systems that grew out of the past are somehow detached from it.
The first thing most doctors ask a patient for is their history. All of it. That’s how a diagnosis is made and a cure prescribed.
Cheers to the R.E.A.L Project and to those knowledge-seeking teachers taking advantage of an opportunity to learn how best to build a curriculum that includes not only the oppression and fight for freedom but the joy and strength of the Black experience in America. Perhaps there would be no need for a Black Lives Matter movement today, if Black lives had mattered in our history books.
There’s still time for more teachers to register and learn about teaching culturally competent and relevant Black history classes. Races United has extended its application process to right up until its three-day professional development workshop begins July 12.
The workshop features LaGarrett King, a nationally recognized Black history education expert and director of the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education at University of Missouri. He said the idea is that teachers take what they learn and share it with other district faculty.
So far, 19 educators from nine area districts, one Catholic high school and a charter school have signed up. Only Kansas City Public Schools, Park Hill, Raymore Peculiar, Lee’s Summit, Independence, Blue Springs, Blue Valley, Olathe and the Shawnee Mission public school districts are represented. The Catholic school is Notre Dame de Sion, and Guadalupe Elementary is the charter school.
“We need critical mass,” said Chris Odom, who is leading a new slate of Black and Hispanic heritage courses in which KCPS students will look critically at race. “There are so many reluctant people who know what they are supposed to do but don’t do it.”
Our children already know there are race problems in America. In an urban district in a city with a history of systemic racism, “how can we not discuss these things?” asked Kelly Wachel, KCPS spokeswoman. “Our kids need to live in reality.”
And they need teachers equipped to help them understand how we got to where we are with race in this country, where Black people are still fighting for voting rights and racial justice.
