African History a requirement in Philadelphia

[brickbacon]

@Renob

Actually, the culture and history of those two-thirds of students is almost wholly from Europe (and the Middle East). American culture, politics, and history are due to Western Civilization, which comes from, essentially, Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome (with a touch of London thrown in). It does not come from Africa. The world that black Americans live has very little to do with anything that happened in Africa, save their remote ancestors being forcibly removed from it.

This is garbage for so many reasons. Besides, if you actually read the link you would see that the course is about African & African-American History. It’s very telling that Fox news only chose to report half the title.

The spokesperson described the course as follows:

The yearlong course covers subjects including classical African civilizations, civil rights and black nationalism, said Gregory Thornton, the district’s chief academic officer.

Two of the three things listed are very much a part of American culture. After reading the Philadelphia Inquirer article that Fox News cited, you gain more insight as to what the school officials were thinking. Allow me to quote the article, since it requires registration.

“Given the history of this country and still given our problems of discrimination and racism, for all of our children to have a more accurate picture of history, a more complete picture of history, is important,” said Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, who is African American.

James Nevels, chairman of the commission, acknowledged that the nation’s Latino population was growing rapidly, and that the district soon might face a decision on how to adequately represent that group’s culture.

“I guess the ideal I would love to see is a rich, diverse, textural and contextual history of all those who make up the fabric of America,” Nevels said. “Short of that, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Gregory Thornton, the district’s chief academic officer, said the district had heard interest from other ethnic groups for the development of courses on Latino and Asian heritage.

“Those will be discussions for the future,” Thornton said.

The course will use the textbook The African American Odyssey by Darline Hine, and will start with origins of humanity, classical African civilizations, and early African leadership before moving into African Americans in colonial America, and African Americans and the Constitution. Eventually, students will learn about African Americans from the Civil War through civil rights and black nationalism.

The decision to mandate the course comes nearly 38 years after a few hundred black students demonstrated at school district headquarters to demand courses in African American studies. The Nov. 17, 1967, demonstration was etched in city history when police, under the command of Commissioner Frank L. Rizzo, waded into the chanting, singing throng and began clubbing students after a few climbed on top of cars. The students scattered, bloodied and screaming, while their leaders were inside presenting their demands to Superintendent Mark Shedd. Shedd was sympathetic to student concerns, but Rizzo ousted him as soon as he became mayor a few years later.

In 1968, the school board mandated that African American history be woven into the curriculum. The district for decades has tried different ways of doing that, but for just as long, critics have said it has not gone far enough.

Knowing the whole story certainly paints a different picture. I still don’t get why people are so upset that their kids might have to learn a little more information to graduate. Isn’t that the point of schooling.

[Renob]

@Askia

Renob. You are cognizant that “Western Civilaiztion” includes African civilizations in any world history course that isn’t embarassingly Eurocentric, yes?

Yes, if we’re talking about Egypt. Of course, the two-thirds “Africans” in the Philadelphia school district are not from the same part of Africa of Egypt and their cultures were quite distinct.

You do realize the course is “African and African-American” studies?

Yes, and as I said above I have no problem with the African-American part of it being taught as a part of U.S. history.

You are aware that Philadelphia is now home to immigrants and refugees from at LEAST six different African nations?

So what? It’s home to a variety of ethnic groups. Should they all have a mandatory course teaching their nation’s history?

Yiou do know that the Middle East and the whole of North Africa region is considered one aspect of African culture within Afrocentric cultural studies?

You do know that black Africa has little in common with the Middle East and North Africa, and that the ancestors of black Americans in the U.S. did not come from either the Middle East or North Africa.

[MandaJo]

@holmes

Yes but in actual practice at least when I was a kid, World History was Europe and everything else a footnote. So while it wasn’t “mandated”, it may as well had it been.

This is actually shifting–slowly, but shifting. There is a new AP World History class that has a true international focus-Here (PDF) are this year’s essay questions: they cover 1) issues facing 20th century Muslim leaders in N. Africa and S. Asia, 2) Social and economic transformations in the Atlantic world as a result of the age of explorationsm and 3) Comparing and contrasting the impact of Mongol rule in different areas. So it really is a World perspective, and what’s in AP courses tends to affect what’s in other courses, as the same teachers teach both–and they are often the teachers that head departments and end up on textbook commitees as well.

And I tend to agree that any new mandatory class needs to be evaluated not in terms of objective worth, but in terms of opportunity cost: not, “is this worth doing”, but "is this more important than an art class, than statistics, than P.E., than Home-ec (what ever the basic lifeskills course is named there), than working on the newspaper or literary magazine, than band, than computer science, than Psychology–when you make a new class mandatory, you cut out an elective. I do think electives have value, and any decision to remove one should be weighed very carefully.

[Bippy_the_Beardless]

It seems more sensible to me if world history was a requirement, and that it was made a far less Euro-centric course.

[Napier]

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but would this have anything to do with a Temple University (Philadelphia) professor of African-American Studies (name escapes me) who is in the forefront of the Afrocentrism movement? This movement holds that the issue of improving a sense of enfranchisement in African-Americans is ethically more important than the academic issue of literal truth, and should trump literal truth. Therefore, course content is dictated more by what achieves enfranchisement than by what research supports. The typical example would be teaching that various modern customs, linguistic features, and intellectual persuits trace back to African and slave origins when historical, linguistic, and other research contradicts this. I understand that the issue is hotly debated in acedemic circles, where the opposing view is that course content should never include things that the research does not support. I read a book by somebody in this camp called “Not Out of Africa” a few years ago.

I fall squarely on the “literal truth” side of this debate, but am also nervous about its conroversial nature - and doubly nervous about making anybody angry by getting some of this wrong! So, if I misunderstood or misstated anything, please correct me - I certainly don’t mean to offend anybody!

[Sal_Ammoniac]

@Renob

Black kids in America are much more influenced by European history and culture.

I can buy to some extent that black kids in America are not heavily influenced by African history outside the slave trade, but at the same time, I doubt they’re heavily influenced by European history, either. I mean, the 30 Years’ War, the Fall of Byzantium, the Black Death, the Concert of Europe – all those things undoubtedly went into making up the world we live in, but the connection between any one of those things and modern American life is still a little sketchy.

The fact is, the study of history in general is just not all that relevant to modern Americans. It’s an intellectual exercise, and a way to take the sharp corners off certain forms of ignorance. But if you’re going to argue from pertinence, I really don’t think there’s much difference between European and African history, frankly. So if Philadelphia wants to push African history as a matter of racial pride, I say, go for it. Why not?

[Askia]

Renob.

1. Egypt is not the whole story of African contributions to Western civilization. “Distinct” does not mean "lack commonalities or influence.’

2.You seem to have a problem with “the African-Americans” including African cultural traditions as part of our histry.

3. It’s home to a variety of African ethnic groups and, no, I’m not opposed to have one single mandatory course teaching their ethnic origins and history.

4. “Black Africa” is a misnomer that assumes their unity applies to skin color. Sure the cultures across the Sahara differ, but that doesn’t mean their art, histories, architecture, ancient trade, foods or other aspects of cultures or are irrelevant, inferior or somehow not worthy of mentioning in Western Civiliation

[Askia]

Napier. Speaking only for myself, I’m not offended. I don’t doubt that the academic curriculum with change over the course of the next few years as cntroversies arise – but I think a smart administrator will likely keep the program fairly non-controversial on the outset.

[MandaJo]

To clarify, I teach high school. We have a seven period day, and this is how classes typically work out for our top kids (and this is in an “urban” school and our top kids include refugees from 4 continents):

Freshmean year
AP Human Geography
Pre-Ap English
Pre-AP Biology
Pre-AP Geometry, Algebra II, or Pre-cal
P.E. or Athletics or JROTC
Pre-ap Spanish or French I
One elective–usually Journalism I, Band, or Art

Sophmore Year
AP World History
AP Biology
Pre-AP Chem (and yes, the strongest kids take 2 sciences sophmore year)
Pre-AP English
Pre-AP Algebra II or Pre-Cal or (rarely) AB or BC Calc
P.E. and Health (1 semester each) or Athletics and Health or JROTC and health in Summer school.
Pre-Ap Spansih or French II

No room sophmore year for fun electives.

Junior Year
AP US History
AP English Language and Composition
AP Calc–AB or BC. Some kids are in pre-cal still.
Pre-AP Physics
Pre-AP French or Spanish III
Some sort of elective that will give you computer credit: Lit Magazine, Newspaper, Yearbook, or AP Comp Science are popular.
One semester of speech and one semester of an elective–AP Psych, life and consumer science skills, interior design or art. We have a dearth of one-semester electives.
Kids that are in sports, JROTC, band, choir, or drama have to put off speech or take it in summer school so that they have room in their schedules Junior year for sports.

Senior Year
AP physics or chemistry
AP English Lit and Compositon
AP Econ/AP Gov (one semester each)
AP European History
AP Stats
AP Calc BC if they haven’t gotten to it yet
Heath and Speech if they haven’t gotten to them yet.
If they didn’t participate in any sports, band, choir, JROTC, Journalism, Literary Magazine etc., or if they made up Health and Speech through summer school, they have time for a purely fun elective at this point. A suprising number of them do go to summer school so that they can take AP Art History, AP Psych, or AP Enviromental Science, AP Spanish or AP French their senior year.
So what items in that list aren’t also worth taking? What can be thrown away? Do we move all our sports, band, and journalism type stuff to after-school only? 'Cause that will exclude the poorest kids who have to work, and make them private clubs for the wealthier kids. The obvious class to drop is AP Euro, senior year, and if there were an AP African History, I’d be okay with that. However, there isn’t, and I doubt the academic rigorousness of any non-AP, mandatory course when compared to an AP course. For our kids that crave academic rigor, this is selling them short.

I’m not saying that African History isn’t important. But so are other things, and the school day is packed already.

[Tastes_of_Chocolate]

@Manda JO

So what items in that list aren’t also worth taking? What can be thrown away? Do we move all our sports, band, and journalism type stuff to after-school only? 'Cause that will exclude the poorest kids who have to work, and make them private clubs for the wealthier kids.

So your arguement is that sports/band/journalism should trump academics? Yes, move sports and band to after hours. School hours should be for academics. Clubs and sports are a secondary part of education. It would suck if someone had to give up a sport because of work, but is it really impossible to find work that isn’t RIGHT after school? Evenings and weekends?

If your students are so busy that they can’t take academic classes, play sports and work, then something has to give, and hopefully it isn’t the learning, but life is full of choices.

[treis]

Honestly I consider social clubs/activities as drama, band or atheletics are more important than students taking one more class that they don’t give two shits about. There is more to high school than academics. It is where students begin to learn how to socialize and interact like adults.

[Askia]

Manda JO. The full course description is “African and African-American History.” You cannot have a course that fully explores our amalgamated heritage and traditons without considering some of their African origins before the TransAtlantic and looking closer at the Arabic slave trade. Nor should you dismiss the African contributions to world history of such things as Mali’s Songhai Empire, the 3,000 year old Kingdom of Ethiopia, the oral traditions of illiterate societies and the importance of storytelling, or the similarities of many Creation myths, or African arts. In nine years of elementary and middle school social studies you’re already pretty grounded in North American and European history, culture, folklore, mythology, mores, traditions, holidays, and have been introduced to some of many others. In a school district that’s 65% black with students from around the diaspora, I’d think a freshman course in A&AA history is more than appropriate.

That said, looking at your schedule, whatever the comparative merits of AP Human Geography are, there’s no reason you can’t teach geography and the spread of the African diaspora and hit 5 of the five of the six continents. (recognizing Eurasia as one land mass the satisfy the purists. Or you can say six of the seven. I know of no high school study of Antarctica that says anything more interesting than: “it’s cold as fuck there and there are no polar bears, that’s the North Pole.”) Or why by your sophomore year AP World History can’t be taught from an Afrocentric perspective showing how peoples from the disapora interacted with those of other countries as trade partners, explorers, missionaries, slaves and colonized people.

[Renob]

@Askia

Renob.

1. Egypt is not the whole story of African contributions to Western civilization. “Distinct” does not mean "lack commonalities or influence.’

How did sub-Saharan Africa contribute anything of significance to Western Civilization?

On Egypt, the Egyptians were quite distinct and had very little influence or use for the black Africans to their South.

2.You seem to have a problem with “the African-Americans” including African cultural traditions as part of our histry.

Do what you want, but it strikes me as a bit of an affectation. Most Black Americans have not been to Africa and their ancestors came from there 200-400 years ago. Hell, my ancestors came from Quebec 130 years ago, but if I were to start trying to claim some sort of cultural affinity for the place it would be completely made up.

And what African traditions are you choosing? As you point out below, Africa is made up of a variety of tribes and cultural groups. Since most African Americans would have a hard time pinpointing what area of Africa their ancestors came from, much less what tribe, then how can you incorporate a tradition accurately? What if the tradition you are incorporating is from a tribe hundreds of miles away from the tribe where your ancestors came from?

4. “Black Africa” is a misnomer that assumes their unity applies to skin color. Sure the cultures across the Sahara differ, but that doesn’t mean their art, histories, architecture, ancient trade, foods or other aspects of cultures or are irrelevant, inferior or somehow not worthy of mentioning in Western Civiliation

They are irrelevant because they didn’t influence Western Civilization. I’m not saying they are inferior or shouldn’t be taught. But if we are talking about what we mandate in high schools, African history should be ranked pretty low. These kids need to learn about the history that influenced the world they live in. African history did not do that. It’s good to have a breadth of knowledge about every continent, Africa included, but in high school you need to concentrate on the basics. African history does not qualify.

[Renob]

@Sal Ammoniac

I can buy to some extent that black kids in America are not heavily influenced by African history outside the slave trade, but at the same time, I doubt they’re heavily influenced by European history, either. I mean, the 30 Years’ War, the Fall of Byzantium, the Black Death, the Concert of Europe – all those things undoubtedly went into making up the world we live in, but the connection between any one of those things and modern American life is still a little sketchy.

It’s not sketchy at all. You look back in European history and you can see the roots of many of our modern discussions. It’s up to history teachers to actually bring this out and show kids that what we’re discussing is only one permutation of what has been discussed for the past three thousand years. The same can’t be said of the history of Africa.

Europe and Western Civilization developed a certain way of looking at the world that is the same way we are looking at the world today. There are certain assumptions about Man, God, and Civilization that we all take for granted and that gives us a common ground to have our discussions. This did not come from Africa. While Africa may have had great civilizations, these civilizations did nothing that influence the way we think about things today. They are, essentially, irrelevant. The same cannot be said for Western Civilization. We are still living in the world created by the Roman Empire. We are not living in the world created by ancient Ghana.

[Marley23]

Renob, we’re talking about perhaps half year to cover an entire continent. I think Askia has a good idea of how that part of the course would likely work: starting with civilizations and empires, then moving on to countries, which would be more in line with the way European History worked when I took it.

These kids need to learn about the history that influenced the world they live in. African history did not do that.

As you continue to mention it without specifying, I become more curious about which particular bits of history you’re thinking of as so important.

in high school you need to concentrate on the basics.

Not sure I agree. The African-American part of the class is inextricable from American history, period. And if you’re already giving the students a year of world history and a year of geography, I don’t see why this is so bad. Are geography (looking at a map) and world history - which would include other places that didn’t affect US history, like South America and most of Asia - that much more vital?

@Renob

Black kids in America are much more influenced by European history and culture.

I meant to argue with this earlier. You’ve heard of this thing called rap, right?

[Askia]

Renob, read my response to Manda JO.

We are not living in a world created by the Roman Empire. We are living in a rapidly changing world where many of the classicist paradigms adapted and asopted by classically trained 18th century gentry are being constantly re-evaluated.

[Liberal]

We may not be living in a world created by the Roman Empire, but the US was formulated from models of the Roman Republic.

[smiling_bandit]

I suppose it depends on what they talk about and when. If they dedicate nearly the whole year to ancient Africa and the slave experience (worthy subject as it is) and only a few weeks to 1865-present, it will have been a waste, a the students will learn and remember nothing. I like history, but I know enough about by former peers to know the vast majority just didn’t give a fat d***.

[Renob]

@Marley23

As you continue to mention it without specifying, I become more curious about which particular bits of history you’re thinking of as so important.

The entire history of Western Civilization. It’s much more important than the history of Africa. Western Civilization gave us our basic structure of our country, from our common law to our political institutions to our market economy to our notions of equality to our ways of separating months of the year. Kids need to know the roots of these things. Schools now do a poor job of teaching that. So what does Philadelphia propose? Instead of concentrating more on teaching the kids where their culture comes from, some bonehead proposes to teach them about a continent that has little to do with the world they live in. Teach the basics first and then teach the other stuff.

[quote]
Not sure I agree. The African-American part of the class is inextricable from American history, period.[/quoate]
As I’ve said before, I have no problem teaching the history of African Americans.

I meant to argue with this earlier. You’ve heard of this thing called rap, right?

As I mentioned above, music is one area where African traditions and culture has played a significant role. However, that contribution pales in comparison to what Western Civilization has given us.

And even if the form of their music is influenced by Africa, it reflects Western Civilization much more than it does African civilization. These kids rap in English (or at least a bastardized form of it), they rap about making money (the capitalism they love sure doesn’t come from African culture), they rap about injustices (the standard of justice to which they appeal comes from Western Civilization, not Africa), etc.

[Renob]

@Askia

We are not living in a world created by the Roman Empire. We are living in a rapidly changing world where many of the classicist paradigms adapted and asopted by classically trained 18th century gentry are being constantly re-evaluated.

Actually, we are living in a world created by the Roman Empire (as well as the Greek democracies and the religion of the Jews). The very basics of our society, our notions of equality and democracy and economics, comes from these people. We adapt them over time, but the basics are all found three thousand years ago in those groups. They are not found in Africa.