Rationale For Teaching Asian American, Native Hawaiian, And Pacific Islander Heritage
Since 2000, I have been an elementary teacher in the School District of Philadelphia. I currently teach a diverse group of students from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In order to understand and support all of my students and the cultures they come from, I try to use national heritage months as times of celebration and learning. The 2026 Yale National Initiate seminar entitled “Asian American History and the Making of the US Immigration System,” led by Mary Lui, Professor of American Studies and of History presented real names and faces and linked them to real dates, times, and places so that not only was I learning about history, I was learning about people. For me, that’s what this work is all about: people. The little people that sit in my classroom ready to learn new things. The teaching people that need to open their world views and develop cultural sensitivities. The administrative people that need to give time and agency so that teachers can expose students. The people of the past, through their harrowing and amazing examples, can help us strive for better in order to create “a more just and prudent life”.
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