Rationale
Starting with the Class of 2009, students in the School District of Philadelphia are required to take a course in African American History before they graduate. Because Philadelphia is associated with freedom and liberty it is a reasonable train of thought that we would become the first school district in the nation that has mandated students to take African American History as a required part of their education. However, this institution has been a journey rather than a point of arrival. The narrative that explains this journey is closely tied to Philadelphia's social history and development. Philadelphia, which hosts the second oldest public education system in the United States, has not always provided an equal education for its students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds, especially African Americans. The fight for equality and equity in education could be traced to the 1800s, when the "free black" community began to create their own educational institutions. In addition to those free blacks, the Quakers, who are the religious group who primarily founded the colony, also provided for the education of free blacks in Philadelphia.
To fast forward the story to the more recent history of this struggle, on November 17, 1967, one of the largest student demonstrations in the city of Philadelphia led by David P. Richardson, took place in front of the Board of Education building when 3,500 students walked out of their classrooms in protest. The students protested the inadequate education they were receiving in Philadelphia's public schools. Protesters distributed leaflets that denounced the lack of Black History in the curriculum. In 1969, an official district policy mandated the inclusion of racial and ethnic history in all curricula materials. As a result, an Ad Hoc Committee was formed to create curricular materials in African and African American History. This subsequently resulted in the creation of an African-American Studies Department (King, 2006). Although this result was considered to be an improvement, "Black Studies" would continue to be pushed to the "back burner" and be marginalized in textbooks and minimized in the classroom.
For the past thirty-seven years, community members, educators, and local politicians have consistently fought to have the 1969 policy come to fruition. Through this process, the teaching and learning of African-American History is becoming a reality for the students in the School District of Philadelphia. (King, 2006). For additional information about this struggle see the following website for the Philadelphia Public School Notebook. http://www.thenotebook.org/editions/2005/winter/newcourses.htm
How does this rich educational history relate to my students in my school? Currently, I teach in a comprehensive neighborhood high school that is located in the Northwest section of the city, in a predominately Caucasian neighborhood. While this school has been integrated for a very long time the student population has shifted from being a predominately "white" school in a predominately "white" neighborhood to a predominately African-American school in a Caucasian neighborhood. It is important to note that this shift in population is not unique to my school and has occurred across Philadelphia as the population of city schools has become more and more African American. In the summer 2005 edition of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook article "Where have all the White kids gone?" Ron Whitestone states "As of the 2003-04 school year, fewer than fifteen percent of the students in Philadelphia public schools were white, a decline that has continued unabated since the 1960's." This is remarkable in light of the fact that although the population of Whites in Philadelphia has declined, (in the 1990's the city lost 181,444 Whites), Whites still make up forty-two percent of the city's population. Additionally, "as of 2000, over half of White children as opposed to roughly 1 of 10 African American children were enrolled in private schools." (Whitestone, 2005) In Philadelphia, many whites who cannot afford to move out of the city opt to send their children to Catholic school or charter schools. These choices by the relevant stakeholders are ultimately the cause of racial gaps in achievement and gaps in the resources provided in nonwhite schools. All of these factors contribute to the condition, quality and equity of education for Philadelphia school children.
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