6/15/19
Students and Parents Push for Better Textbooks to Help Fight Hate and Stereotypes
Historians in the Newstags: teachers, education, textbooks
Sitting in her high school AP world history class, Rimsha Abbasi suddenly found herself in the uncomfortable position of explaining the word “jihad.” The class conversation in suburban Northern Virginia had turned to Islam, and Abbasi’s teacher suggested she lead the discussion.
The task felt daunting. Her peers may have had ideas “in their heads about what jihad is, about what Islam is,” the 18-year-old said. But she felt compelled to explain that the Arabic word means “struggle,” despite negative connotations tethered to it.
“If I didn’t explain what that meant, I wouldn’t want someone else to then have a misinterpretation of that,” Abbasi said. “That would have been more painful.”
That’s why, when public schools in Loudoun County, Va., selected history textbooks this year, Abbasi demanded that the school system reject three works she and many others decried as culturally insensitive and Islamophobic.
They, like many others across the country, are countering false or incomplete portrayals of their communities in textbooks and class lessons. Students, parents and educators are calling for material that reflects a diversity of experiences, saying it’s a matter of providing a fuller telling of history.
The discussions are unfolding during a time of dramatic demographic shifts in the nation’s public schools. Students of color made up a majority of the country’s public school population for the first time in 2014, and the federal government projects the percentage of white student enrollment will continue to fall.
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Latest SCOTUS Case to Privilege Religion Over Civil Society
- A Look Back at the 747 as Boeing Delivers Last Jumbo Jet
- The Tradition of Overambitious Public Works in Mexico
- Dutch Villagers Find Hunt for Nazi Treasure Less and Less Charming With Passage of Time
- Review: New Book Worships the False Idol of the Responsible Corporation
- Zachary Shore: the Struggle Between Vengeance and Virtue in WWII
- Julia Schleck on The Function of the University Today
- The Bitter, Contested History of Globalization
- Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries on Consulting for Hip Hop at 50 Documentary
- Glenda Gilmore's Bio Shows Artist Romare Bearden Reckoning with the South