Poor Curriculum
Many of our students feel their educational materials are severely lacking — in terms of accuracy or thoroughness, as well as cultural representation and sensitivity. But it goes beyond texts — students aren’t getting an accurate, truthful account of current scholarship or counternarratives that establish a broader understanding and shared, expanded, reality.
“I think one way that we could really help students understand the impact that Black people have put in America, is by implementing the 1619 Project into classrooms. I really think that that is a vital source into showing kids, not kids, but into showing high schoolers how America was really built off of the backs of slaves because before personally, for me, before taking my JC history class I knew very minimally about slaves. I was in middle school and even in high school, slavery is not talked about as much as the Civil War... You don’t really learn that slavery was one of the main causes of the Civil War... It really frustrates me.”
“In history class, we had three days of learning about islanders, and we watched clips from Moana. That was the most representation we got in class.”
“People from any cultural background and social context can always have a mission. We’re here to learn from each other.
We can renew the values in which our system is made. We want educators to know more about us, to not be afraid to ask us about our cultures. There’s a language that is lacking in the system, we can’t talk to each other in a way that is open-minded...[everyone] has a personal responsibility to educate themselves. Our educators can learn more and engage with our communities.”
“Schools are prioritizing white history more than they are black history. And that’s evident in the classes that are being taught. So I just think we should really implement ethnic studies, whether that be African American studies or Native American indigenous studies. We just need an ethnic studies period.”
“When I was in 5th grade a new student from Mexico came to my school and he didn’t speak any English. I know Spanish so I started helping him in class. I would help him a lot with translating work that we did in the class because there wasn’t really anyone to help him translate what we were doing. Similarly, now in high school, a friend of a friend speaks mostly Spanish yet is in classes that are in English and often had to ask other students for help her translate her work.”