The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies

     The blog post for this week is on the history of the education system related to how they teach history. The paper that this blog is titled highlights that the U.S. heavily favors having those who have European roots and practically shoves minority groups under the rug unless it is through the lens of slavery. This is a very accurate assessment based on the U.S. textbooks used to teach history. Furthermore, the U.S. treats these racial problems as if it is gradually progressing and shedding these traits as part of its mission of promoting equality and equity. Even though, it is much more complicated, with a lot more work ahead of us. 

    Furthermore, the children from the article recognize this phenomenon. Students starting in middle school start to question why U.S. history focuses so much on white men and not people of color. This was documented in the early 2000s with students of color stating it would be more interesting to learn more about people of color in history class as opposed to learning about the achievements that white people have made. 

    This seems to be very self-evident when talking about U.S. history. Very little is spoken about minority groups outside of how they were discriminated against and how their rights were restored only on paper. It would be more interesting to learn about the culture and achievements of people of color in U.S. history as it is a major section that is incredibly underlooked. Most students learn about this type of history from their English class with books like "A Raisin in the Sun".  In short, this is a change that I hope future teachers can implement into their history classes to better educate our citizens of tomorrow. If we don't teach the mistakes we made in how past or ignore the culture that makes up a majority of America, how are we able to grow and prosper as a nation.

 https://khdzamlit.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/6/11261956/a_raisin_in_the_sun_-_lorraine_hansberry.pdf