What Should Schools Do for Black History [and Herstory] Month?
Like so many things in life, there is no easy, quick, or painless way to teach about Black history. For many of us, Black history was not properly addressed throughout our own education. As I said in a back-to-school newsletter, one of the ways we can do this is to take ourselves back to school and try to understand our history from different perspectives. We believe Black history and the history of other historically marginalized people shouldn’t be relegated to just one month or oversimplified into any one special event. Even so, February is a great time to recommit ourselves to learning and growing with our kids, helping them to be even better human beings than ourselves. Throughout this month, we will be sharing a variety of tips and resources that can help parents and teachers jumpstart these conversations.
A few interesting resources:
Code Switch (should be in your podcast library!)
The lies we tell ourselves about race (Sam Sanders) Important 4-minute listen
Suggested children’s books (just a few favorites)
Smoky Night (all ages)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 (upper elementary)
Children's Books for a Better World (FB Group)
History lessons worth revisiting (or maybe visiting for the first time):
A fresh look at Ruby Bridges, Bayard Rustin, Shirley Chisholm
Did your school teach about Biddy Mason or Constance Baker Motley? (I'm willing to bet they were not in your social studies textbook.)
How did the Haitian Revolution impact American history?
Langston Hughes - Poetry Challenge (WHPS students participated, see a few examples)
Driving While Black (a look at the history of transportation, great PBS program)
Housing: LA’s history of segregated housing, A quick refresher on redlining and how it shaped life for many of us (parental advisory for coarse language), PBS A Tale of Two Americas
A Story Corps tearjerker (not suitable for very young children). Check out the story here!
