Week One

There were many little things, which seemed to catch my attention and kept me engaged this week. As a Social Studies person I have never looked into the History of my profession other than the basics Title Nine, The Little Rick Nine, Brown vs. Board of Education, and the treatment of Native Americans.  Out of the things that engaged me I will just share the two that have made me wonder and think all week.

Something, which really struck a cord with me, is the forced celebration, in schools, of American Holidays.  My family came to America from Ireland escaping the British rule. After reading the piece which talks about Americanizing students by having them celebrate holidays such as Thanksgiving, I find myself wondering, “Why does my family celebrate Thanksgiving?’” and “When did we start celebrating this holiday?”  For some reason this really struck me and I wonder when did we stop being ourselves and become what those who were already Americanized wished us to be?

I also find it interesting today we aren’t allowed much leeway in our classes to celebrate holidays with our students.  Gosh, we may offend someone who believes something else.  In the past this is something we forced onto others or shared with them depending on viewpoints.  I know at my school I am not able to show the History Channel’s History of Halloween any more to my World History class due to the religious preference of two students in our school.  The video doesn’t glamorize Halloween it just shares and explains how we got to the holiday so many share today.  One student asked me this year, “Mrs. Wolf by being so sensitive to everyone’s needs are we becoming too sensitive?”  Interesting thought and one I do not have an answer too.

Something I still find myself coming back to was during the era of segregating the schools.  Until I was a parent I gave little thought to what it would mean to send your child into an arena where it will be violent, psychologically and physically and expect them to learn.  I grew up in an area with many different groups of people attending the same school.  Maybe this is why I have never given it much thought as well.  I cannot imagine what it was like to watch your child walk away and be one of the first students to segregate a school.  At some point I might find myself thinking I could educate my child at home better by keeping them close to me and safe. To be those students and to take steps into a school that is supposed to be a safe place and find nothing but hatred and violence toward you would be intimidating.   I have a friend who is African American and when it came to attending her local high school she decided being part of Running Start was going to be easier than attending a high school where she would be the only non Caucasian student.  She had spent junior high being teased and harassed. She felt she would get a better education by going elsewhere.  This was only ten years ago.  How far have we moved forward since the segregation of schools?