![]() While other states and local governments were attempting to ban race-related instruction, Rep. Equitable practices and culturally responsive education have become helpful instructional strategies, but educators can still only teach what they know and learn.įor this reason, the passage of House Bill 198 - incorporating Black history in every Delaware student’s education - holds such promise in our classrooms, for our future and for a more accurate and thorough awareness of where we have been as a country, where we are now and where we are going. And, even with that knowledge, I also recognize that teachers are only one part of a larger educational system that too often fails to reach every student. I have done this repeatedly in my own career and continue to do so with the understanding there will always be areas I can improve upon. I have always known that great teachers take time to self-reflect and analyze their curriculum and pedagogy. More importantly, I failed to allow so many of my students an opportunity to see themselves in our country’s history, to learn from our nation’s prior mistakes and to be inspired by the amazing, diverse figures that could have made them dream bigger in their own lives. ![]() For my students, it meant that I never fully opened the door for the type of thought-provoking and reflective conversations that were needed in the classroom. In retrospect, I fell far short of teaching about the complexities of our country’s past, and I missed even more opportunities to connect historic events to current situations.īlack history is about more than slavery it includes an understanding of racial injustices that continue to happen today, while also celebrating and honoring the accomplishments of so many in the face of these injustices. In that moment in time, during that period of my life, I believed I was creating an excellent educational environment for each and every one of my students. I even used the internet to access websites that many of my colleagues did not yet know existed in this emerging space. economy, and also the hardships those who were enslaved endured as they helped build this country. I wanted my students to understand slavery’s impact on our nation’s economic growth and current U.S. I focused on teaching the complete history of our country, including slavery. I was a young, excited and - I believed - thorough educator, relying on so much more to instruct my students than the history books and curriculum I had been provided. history and sixth-12th grade world history and sociology in New Castle County public schools. Never has.īut the information got me thinking - and reflecting - about my time as an educator in our state three decades ago and how much we’ve grown in the space.ĭuring the 1990s, I taught sixth grade social studies, eighth grade U.S. Recently, the UCLA School of Law released a database showing that Delaware is the lone state to have zero measures enacted or even introduced that would ban instruction on how race and law have been used to produce systemic discrimination, more commonly known as critical race theory. ![]() Mark Holodick is Delaware’s secretary of education.
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