Tag: #history

My Elementary Teachers Lied to Me

My elementary teachers lied to me. I remember learning about history in elementary school because it was mostly the same thing every single time. We started with Christopher Columbus and learned the cute little poem. I was told he was a hero and didn’t learn until junior year of high school that he did some shady things such as destroy a whole nation’s way of life, brought diseases, and captured local people just to name a few. As far as I know, my old school district still has Columbus day off.

After learning about the heroic efforts of Columbus, we dove into the world of the pilgrims. We were told how they left England due to religious persecution and were saved by Squanto from starvation because he happily helped them learn how to plant corn. This led us to Thanksgiving which made all of our young souls believe that the Native Americans (Who am I kidding?  We used the term Indians because our school’s mascot was indeed an Indian) and the pilgrims were the best of friends. We got to dress up as either an Indian or a pilgrim and then go down to the cafeteria and eat random Thanksgiving foods on the floor in our “costumes.” Not going to lie, I loved this part of the school year. I loved decorating a paper headband and adding feathers to it to play the role of an “Indian”. Pocahontas was one of my favorite Disney movies and I wanted to be her. Yet, to my knowledge I have not one ounce of Native American blood in me. Knowing what I know now about cultural appropriation and how the relationship between the white settlers and the Native Americans were not all roses and rainbows, these innocent elementary activities make me cringe. I know my teachers had good intent. I am not sure the resources were out there like they are today for multicultural teaching. This is why it’s important to be open to learn more since there are more resources.

My first year of teaching I taught in Parker, Arizona. Parker is home to the Colorado River Indian Tribes. I learned so much more by just living there about Native American culture than I ever did in school. During my time teaching there, they celebrated CRIT Native American Days which falls in the beginning of October. It would be cool to see a shift of celebrating Columbus Day to teaching more about Native Americans. There is National Native American Day celebrated on the 2nd Monday in October and recognized by California and South Dakota. Hopefully, more states and eventually the country as a whole will recognize this day instead of Columbus Day.

The other history topic that I remember hearing over and over again in elementary school was Civil Rights. This happened usually around Martin Luther King Day. We would listen to his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech and fill out something about our dreams for the future. We talked about segregation and people like Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges. My teachers did talk about the different schools, bathrooms, water fountains, and the peaceful protests during the Civil Rights Era but as a child it seemed that as soon as we got to the part where Dr. King was eventually shot, that ended everything. We moved on and it gave the impression that everything was OK. He was shot but people learned to be better and his dream was completed. America was the perfect country that loved its native people, ended slavery, and defeated racism and segregation. This was a lie. My teachers lied to me.

I respect my past teachers. They were great and I had a good education. I know times have changed and the idea of teaching racism in a small town community to elementary kids would be tough. I am sure it was frowned upon to even get into such topics and they wanted us to see love, not hate. Times have changed and there are more resources to teach young kids about different cultures in a way that’s respectful and dignified. Edutopia, Ted Talks, and Teaching Tolerance are just a few great resources for educators to talk about difficult topics. The internet was just starting to get big when I was in elementary school so I am grateful for resources that are at our fingertips today.

It wasn’t until college, that I learned our country was not perfect. I did have a high school history teacher who didn’t sugar coat things, but I still thought racism was over. I went to a predominately white high school. It seemed like there was no racism because there was no diversity and we knew nothing different. The only thing I knew about other cultures and races were what was shown on TV and unfortunately the city next to my small town had a lot of systematic racism which was portrayed on the media as black on black crime and gang violence. The city was very much divided and even as an ignorant kid I could see that. You didn’t stop on the West Side and avoided it at all cost.

Growing up, my Dad did a great job trying to expose us to different communities in the area. When we would drive to my grandparents’ house on the east side of the city he would purposely drive through the west side neighborhoods and down town. He often stopped at gas stations and grocery stores that were in “sketchy” areas. This often made me cry and scream that he was going to get us killed. I’m 27 and still alive today so obviously we were safe. At the time, I thought my Dad was being selfish making us drive in “not safe” areas of the city but now I realize his intentions were to make us see the good in the area and to destroy the negative images we had and replace them with truth from first hand experiences.

As a college student, I learned terms that I had never heard before in my life. Systematic racism, white privilege, racial profiling, ageism, and ableism were just a few terms that were brand new to me. As I learned these terms and read more about equity and equality I realized how broken our country is. Once I discovered the truth, I couldn’t hide in my ignorance any longer.

Here’s the thing, I didn’t realize half of what I didn’t know about racism and injustice in our country because I was ignorant. If I didn’t go to college and teach in some of the places I’ve taught I would have no idea the inequalities and broken social structures we have in place. I still have a white wash mind, I am trying to become more open minded and fix the things I have been taught but that doesn’t happen over night. It takes life experiences, learning through books or podcasts written by people of color, and listening to those who are oppressed and actually hearing them. I know not everyone has had these experiences and it’s OK. We can grow and learn everyday. It’s not too late.

It’s our job as white people to teach our people. Not all of our family, friends, and neighbors are aware of the racism, hate, and systematic oppression because they live in a bubble. I loved most of my teachers growing up, but I was taught a white washed view of history and had to learn to change my perspective on many topics. I don’t blame my past educators because maybe they didn’t know better, but if you know better it’s your job to be a voice of truth. As an educator, my mission is to not sugar coat things but to appropriately tell my students things are not roses and rainbows and we can and must do better. Civil Rights did not end with Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and we have so much more to do and learn.

I am not done learning. I will never be done learning. As our country currently engages in protests for the black community do not think that when this is over it is done. There is a lot of work to be done to fight racism and it will not happen over night. Think also of our people who are Latino, Muslim, and Chinese just to name a few. These groups are also experiencing constant hate from ignorance and lack of understanding of their culture.  There is so much more to know and to learn. The best ways to becomes less ignorant is to read about different cultures, learn about white privilege, travel, and engage in conversation with people who are different from you.

Let’s stop lying to ourselves. We can do better.

 

 

 

What Side of History do you want to be On?

What side of history do you want to be on? I have asked this question to my 5th grade class numerous times this school year. In 5th grade, we have dived deep into some heavy topics such as Revolutionary War, World War II, the Cold War, and before COVID19 hit we had just finished reading Through My Eyes, a memoir by Ruby Bridges.

Now if you have not read Through My Eyes, it’s an excellent story from Ruby’s own voice of what it was like to be a young black girl going to an all white school in the south. The words themselves are great to read, but the thing that struck my class and me the most are the pictures. This book has photographs of Ruby heading into the school escorted by US Marshalls while white people, mostly white mothers, are screaming and protesting that this young girl be taken away and to never let her set foot into their school. She was spat on, threatened, and there was even a picture of someone holding a black doll in a casket. This was her reality. A reality that today we look at as shameful and horrid. How could people do this to an innocent 6 year old girl? The pictures do not lie. The people in them appear hateful, racists, and evil.

Now as many 10 and 11 year old would, they questioned why did people do this? How could they? Are these people evil? I explained they are definitely not on the right side of history, but did they know better?

We talked about the culture of the south and the history of slavery. Slavery wasn’t that long ago and some people’s attitudes towards African Americans were not going to change over night, especially if their parents raised them to hate and they raised their own children that way as so on and so forth. It’s a cycle. A cycle that lives on today and if someone doesn’t change their mind they will continue to preach hate and think they are not wrong.  I told them it’s easy to judge these people and the photos hold the truth, but what would be really interesting is to see if any of those people in those photos became aware of how horrible their actions were towards Ruby and other African Americans.

Personally, I applaud the people who change and become self aware of how their thoughts and actions might impact others. There was a lot of evil and hate in the photographs of Through my Eyes but I do not doubt someone from those photos realized the mistakes they had make. Can you imagine how hard that might be? If your whole life you had beliefs that were taught to you from a young age, could you change them?

I’m from the North. All throughout my schooling I learned how awful the south was and we were the “good guys” during the Civil War and in the Civil Rights Era. I was raised to treat all people with respect no matter what they looked like. My parents’ values and some of the school’s values became my own and it wasn’t until college, that I was able to make my own values and shape my own understanding of the world, piece by piece and I’m still not done figuring out my values, morals, and beliefs.

If my parents taught me that skin color matters and not to respect people would I still have my current values and beliefs? If my school preached segregation would I believe in integration? I always think back to church. I have nothing but respect for people who convert to Catholicism on their own. There was a few people I knew in college who did it for themselves and not even because they were marrying another Catholic. I can’t honestly say if I would be a Catholic on my own. I’m Catholic because my parents raised me that way, not because I chose this on my own account.  Sure, I still practice Catholicism and attend church. I even recently got married in the Catholic church because it was an expectation. It’s familiar and I, like many others, appreciate familiarity. Change is hard.

It’s easy to judge, especially in today’s world when life is so chaotic and information is so easy to access. I fear that because information is so easy to get, we think people need to be able to change and become molded to fit our ideals. At times my social media is nothing but people bashing each other. I get it. I don’t understand a lot of things either, but there’s always two sides to a coin.

The United States went into a panic when COVID19 became a reality and not just some disease halfway across the globe.  People started to gather supplies and hoard things. This resulted in grocery stores becoming bare and essential items nonexistent. People were angry about such greediness.

I was also angry about the lack of supplies and people taking way more than necessary but when I heard the news of these empty grocery stores, the first thing I told my husband was we needed to get to the store. Did we really need groceries? No, in fact we would have been fine for a few days, but my instincts told me to get things before everything was gone. It became a competition of who could find toilet paper and pasta.

You see most people’s first thoughts were not to go help other people. It was to fend for your family and yourself. We criticize the masses, but gosh I was not the first to think of other people. It wasn’t until I saw all the posts about helping the elderly that I realized my mistake.

It was then that I saw the beauty of this Pandemic. People started to help each other out. People volunteered to make masks, feed students and hospital workers, and pick up items for others who were at the most risk. Teachers started organizing parades and some companies still found a way to pay their employees.

The big buzz word of 2020 is social distancing. We shake our heads at the people we see still gathered in groups but again do they know better? Do they have parents at home to tell them to not go out? I get most of my “Don’t leave the house” information from Facebook. Do they have social media and if they do, do their friends post this information or is it just funny memes and tiktok videos? Do they even have internet access? How are some of our most vulnerable, such as our homeless population getting this information without libraries and other resources? Do we just shake our head and write a post about social distancing or do we inform and help?

This pandemic hasn’t been easy. Half of my family is in the at risk category, including myself. I worry about them and get teary eyed when people suggest we should just continue on with our lives and worry more about the economy than lives.

Yet, maybe these are some of the people who are out of work and aren’t getting paid at this time? They need the economy back to normal in order to thrive. This makes it a little more understandable.

The problem always boils down to what we know and our experiences. If you have no connection to what’s going on it’s going to be hard to empathize. I didn’t empathize with China at first. I literally thought, “Gee that sucks but it’s not my problem.” We need to change our mindset to value all human life. Maybe this is what this virus is trying to teach us? When bad things happen, it’s not just one person or country’s problem it’s all of our problems. However, we can’t just complain at what people are doing or not doing. We have to inform, teach, and reach out, from 6 feet away of course.

I realize not everyone can do this. For some people sitting at home is all they should be asked to do during this time, but some people might have the energy to do more, only they can decide that.

With COVID19, I didn’t realize my students were already going to have to ask themselves  “What side of history do I want to be on?” We can’t change the virus but we can control our actions, our thoughts, and our words. Take time to reflect during this time, be the thread not the scissors that cuts us apart.