[ad_1]
When high school students in the West Hartford Public School District study World War II this coming year, they will learn about more than just specific identities like Japanese American internment camps. They will also hear about Sadao Munemori, a soldier who died protecting his comrades from a grenade. The 22-year-old became the first Japanese American to be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Jessica Blitzer, supervisor of the district’s social studies department, who helped design the curriculum for the secondary grade level, said lessons like these that go beyond expectations leave teachers humbled.
“It’s one of those moments where you think ‘How are we not doing this?’ These are the moments when you realize it’s really important, especially given our population in West Hartford, which is incredibly diverse in many ways, Blitzer said.
Three years after Connecticut became the third state to require Asian American and Pacific Islander history in K-12 education, an evolving curriculum is in motion. At present, education is being started in every class except fourth and fifth. Most of the district’s 9,300 students will have integrated lessons year-round. It won’t be a “Heritage Month approach,” Blitzer said.
As pandemic-driven anti-Asian hate surged in 2020, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander advocates have mobilized to mandate AI history through legislation or state education boards. Today, Most AI adults want teachers to teach history through the lens of racismSlavery and secession, according to a 2024 survey. There have been some successes, with about a dozen states passing laws requiring the curriculum.
Beyond well-known events, classes are considering topics such as stereotypes of South Asians and Vietnamese refugees. But as efforts grow, disagreements among Asian Americans are also growing.
More progressive voices question the fairness and optics of receiving approval from lawmakers who have rejected histories focused on other historically marginalized groups, such as the expanded black history curriculum that some critics have recently denigrated. awakened ideology or compared to critical race theory,
Devastated by reports of thousands of verbal and physical assaults, including the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, AI organizations have stepped up advocacy for more inclusive education. The hope was that teaching about AI contributions would promote understanding. In July 2021, Illinois becomes first state to mandate Asian American historyIn 2022, New Jersey and Connecticut followed,
An extended look at history includes reading descriptions of new immigrants to San Francisco Wong Kim Ark’s fight for birthright citizenship in the Supreme CourtIt also includes studies of living figures such as Chinese American architect Maya Lin,
Jason Oliver Chang, director of the University of Connecticut’s Institute of Asian and Asian American Studies, helped develop the law and train teachers. He remembers how lawmakers were impressed by the students’ testimonials.
“They were talking about their experiences of living two lives – one at school, one at home – feeling invisible and not feeling seen by their peers or respected by their peers,” Chang said. “Whenever there is mention of someone who looks like them in the school curriculum, it is said that they are bad people.”
President Donald Trump has stepped up scrutiny of how schools address race, and has threatened to cut off federal funding to diversity initiatives. Despite some anti-DEI measures, guidance has left some teachers uncertain blocked Or be blocked by federal judges. Kate Dias, president of Connecticut’s largest teachers union, advises that concerned teachers should follow the framework and consult with colleagues.
,Almost everyone who teaches material of this nature doesn’t do it in a way of saying, ‘Here are all the injustices of the world,’, Dias said. ,The call to action is that ‘Now you need to look at this information and you need to decide what it means.’ ,
Requiring AI history in schools has received bipartisan support. But in some conservative states, divisions have arisen over lawmakers who don’t see systemic racism and social justice as essential to history.
When Florida adopted AI history legislation in 2023, critics saw it as hypocrisy, as the state denied Advanced Placement African American studies due to having “critical race theory”.
In Arizona, failed legislation mandating AI and Native Hawaiian history lessons was initially supported by some former presidents of the Japanese American Citizens League. The Arizona chapter came out in opposition. Current JACL leaders also withdrew their support.
Chapter leaders claimed that the bill’s co-sponsor, state Republican Sen. John Kavanaugh, and other supporters were only interested in rubber-stamping a sanitized history and ignoring African American and LGBTQ histories.
Kavanaugh has equated systemic racism with a theory. He previously supported banning college groups and high school ethnic studies classes based on racial or ethnic identity that appeared to be political.
He says that teaching history should be done in a “neutral, holistic manner”.
“I certainly don’t have a problem with teaching the history of blacks or Hispanics or anyone else,” Kavanaugh said. “I don’t think there should be a curriculum in high school teaching students that this country is systemically racist when it is not.”
The Arizona chapter of Make Us Visible, a national organization trying to establish AI history in every state, has faced criticism for not calling right-wing legislators. Chapter director Astrea Wong rejected it.
“It’s really cool that even a conservative senator would support it. It means it has some bones,” Wong said. “It should be bipartisan anyway.”
Amber Reed, co-executive director of AI New Jersey, finds this troubling.
“What teacher wants to suddenly start teaching Asian American history while being discouraged from teaching African American history or Latinx history, the history of all of our communities,” Reed said.
Before next summer, West Hartford Public Schools will assess how to improve the curriculum.
The goal is not just to teach “doom and gloom” to the student body — of which white kids make up about 55%, Hispanic 21% and Asian and black students more than 10% — but to take a balanced look at history, said Anne McKernan, assistant superintendent.
“There’s resistance, there’s perseverance, there’s greatness,” McKernan said. “As I look at the changes in the primary and the changes in the secondary, it’s a richer look.”
The elementary grades are using books to learn culture, reading comprehension and vocabulary, said Erica Hanush, district literacy and social studies curriculum specialist. For example, kindergartner Jama is reading the picture book “Dumpling Soup” by Kim Rattigan. Centered on a family in Hawaii, the characters come from a variety of Asian backgrounds.
“It’s really very much embedded through the story and the lens,” Hanush said. “And it’s giving teachers and students a natural opportunity to learn a little more about the where, who and the traditions where those stories come from.”
,
This story has been corrected to show that it was the past president of the Japanese American Citizens League who supported the Arizona AI History legislation, not the current JACL, which withheld support.
___ Tang reported from Phoenix.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
[ad_2]
