![]() That’s what my education has been like, and this is the impact that it had on my life. I had to figure out how to make connections, all while clearing up the confusion I felt after the years of selective or sugar-coated material I was given in school. But I had no real connection to my culture as a Black person in the U.S., and I wasn’t given the opportunity throughout my education to know that I had no connection. I was forced to take off all the layers of inaccurate information that I was initially forced to put on.Īfter shedding those layers, I could see bits and pieces of things that I then worked to retain in the form of knowledge. I came to this realization thinking about what I was going through and what I wasn’t learning. I was completely clueless about what was lacking, and eventually, the negative truth of all these unpleasant experiences I have had with education hit me. From there, you’re only given the tools necessary to continue to add to the falsities. The foundation of false facts is laid down in early elementary school. Then, when I injured myself during the required physical education course, for months I heard whispers of criticism, as if my genetic makeup excluded my ability to feel pain.Īll of this pushed me to take back my power and engage with history myself.Ī dishonest education is disorienting and destructive to a student’s understanding of the real world. I had to explain to teachers-some who held master’s degrees in their fields and some who were practicing physicians-how my hair was able to change from braids one week to an afro the next. And as the only Black cheerleader at the school, I had to explain how the bows they used wouldn’t fit my hair. I was the one who led class discussions on slavery and racism, and I was expected to always be in “tip-top” shape academically as the student who filled the diversity quota. I had the reputation in middle school for being the one the teacher would call on for corrections. And then, as if I haven’t been through the same educational system as the rest of my class, I’ve been expected to know the most. I’m forced to work harder because I have to learn about my culture on my own time. As a student, particularly as a student of color, my education has been a disservice that has had a weighty impact on my life. That sugar-coated education is damaging in the worst way possible: Students in the U.S. We didn’t celebrate cultural appreciation months, and we had only those two sugar-coated paragraphs about the unpleasant areas of U.S. I went to a middle school where perspective was limited. So how are we, as students, to execute these ideals if our education doesn’t reflect them? How can we effectively make change and make our society just if we aren’t taught the truth behind what we’re changing? You can’t know where you’re going without knowing where you came from. Our nation: We’re taught that it’s a land for all, a melting pot and a place where liberty is a natural right. Learning this way means only knowing the names of a few historical figures while the rest collect dust because including them goes against a specific narrative that is so commonly spread throughout our nation. This kind of education minimizes the start of a national system of legal oppression. ![]() This kind of teaching makes statistical excuses for events that took place for over 200 years and that created a system so dehumanizing that the stress it caused in the past is embedded in the DNA of an entire people. history to only a couple of sugar-coated paragraphs in a textbook. ![]() Education is the key to a strong society, so when information is hidden and dishonest, that hinders the future of our society and limits the amount of change possible.Īn education that consists of glossed-over information like the one that I and so many students have received reduces the importance of substantial events in U.S. That classroom experience and others like it sparked an idea in me. This is how a teacher explained the institution of slavery in the United States to my classmates and me, and this exact example is often seen as an ample explanation for something so devastating. Actually, more often than not, traders only took captive those that were already slaves in their villages as prisoners of war.” ![]() wasn’t as heavily involved with slavery as you might think. ![]() We are going to take an unfiltered approach to the concept, and the U.S. “Students, today we are going to take an in-depth look into the history behind the triangular trade route, which happens to involve slavery. ![]()
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