Rationale
William C. Overfelt High School is part of the East Side Union High School District, an all-high school district in San Jose,1 the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley. It lies in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area, considered one of the most affluent in the nation. But Overfelt clearly does not share in that affluence. Overfelt students come from working-class and low-income families that struggle financially. If one’s education level is an indicator of income level, then it may explain why of its approximately 1450 students, 85-90% qualify for free or reduced lunch. Only 28% of Overfelt parents graduated from high school, 12% had some college, and only 7% are college graduates. 52% of parents did not finish high school. This high crime, high poverty, “gang hotspot” with a median household income of $60,000 is only a 15-20 drive from highly affluent Palo Alto (where the median household income is $137,000, more than double that of Overfelt’s families) and highly rated Palo Alto High School.
While Overfelt does not have the reputation for high achievement that Palo Alto High School enjoys, I believe that neither zip code nor family income should determine the quality of education a student gets. In fact, the promise of free, quality education is a major factor as to why the families that Overfelt serves immigrate to the U.S. My responsibility as a teacher of these students is to provide them the quality education that their families expect and that the students deserve. Indeed, it is one of Overfelt’s stated missions to prepare them for the world beyond the borders of our little neighborhood by teaching them the skills they will need to navigate and succeed at college or university and beyond. But if my conversation with Sierra is any indication of how well we are doing, then we are failing, and too many students are not fully equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in college or university when they leave the Royal nest. If we are to hold true to our commitment to graduate students with the 21st century skills necessary for college and career success, then we must do better.
As illustrated by Sierra, the pressing need of my students is to fill the gap in their knowledge about how to conduct academic research. The goal of this unit is two-fold. The first is to teach students the necessary skills of academic research. Sierra was not the first Overfelt student asked to write a research paper who did not know how to do it. Clearly, research skills need to be taught in an intentional and structured way. The second goal is to allow students the freedom to explore their own interests. I often hear them lament the courses they are required to take; they do not feel that what is being taught has any relevance to their lives, or their futures as they envision them. Setting aside the argument of whether a liberal arts education is valuable in the current day and age, there is some truth to their criticism.
One of the reasons I want to tie this unit to protest movements, especially the modern Civil Rights Movement which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is because my students are like so many young people. They are looking for ways in which the world is relevant to their lives. Not only that, but they are looking at a world in which they see injustice on the daily. If they are not experiencing it personally, they see it on their social media feeds. Events that just five or ten years ago would have taken days to disseminate to a global audience now can reach the other side of the world in a matter of minutes, even seconds. They are bombarded with information—the good, the bad, and the ugly—but give no thought to whether to filter it.
This inability to filter information manifests not just in their social lives. They do not have the skills to filter information for an academic purpose. I see this lack of ability in the classroom. If given free rein to discuss a topic or issue, often they will range too far and too wide. Additionally, they use or cite evidence that has no bearing on the topic at hand, or evidence that may be relevant but which they lack the ability to identify and articulate. The connection may be there but students cannot connect the dots that would enable their audience to see the picture. This unit aims to tackle the academic piece and accomplish both goals.
One way to interest students in a subject that the majority of them, in my experience, find dry and boring is to make history relevant. They do not see how what happened “back in the day” or “a long time ago” has any bearing on the rights and privileges that they enjoy today. They often take these things for granted, even though many of them come from disadvantaged backgrounds and live in homes and a community that enjoy much fewer privileges than another one a mere 15-minute drive away.
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