Retirement unsettles, at least initially, the habit of calendars. It’s the Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day/El Dia de La Raza holiday in SFUSD. A teacher friend reminded me by sending along a link to this comic from the Oatmeal site, used to concisely debunk the (Knights of) Columbus day propaganda. It’s a perfect length for some of that CCSS recommended reading of expository text.
It certainly “exposes.”
Reading through, I was reminded that way back in the ancient days of the Consent Decree, when multicultural education was a real day-to-day curricular effort supported with district money and staff, we used to actually teach primary source snippets of Bartolome’s “Destruction of the Indies” in eighth grade American history classes. Yep, to eighth graders. Ah, the days of multicultural ed… This from of p. 181 Barbara Miner’s excellent book-length study of Milwaukee’s public schools, Lessons from the Heartland, captures some of what we had:
The multicultural movement was a reflection of the times. On one hand, the civil rights and black power movements had raised issues of access, equity, and pride, and demands grew to encompass the school curriculum. On the other hand, the movement took place before standardized testing seized control of the curriculum and constrained teachers’ ability to stray off-test. Political factors also provided the breathing space and funding necessary to innovate. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Milwaukee had not yet abandoned its public schools. Except for those ideologically committed to privatization and public funds for private voucher schools, most people maintained hope that the public schools could and would rise to the challenges they faces.
Maybe Ravitch and friends are right and the tide is turning against the reformers. Even if not, it’s good to know that some folks are still “straying off test” to teach and challenge politics.
Weeding the Collection 