By Tatiyana Patrick, Current Staff
As Black History Month comes to an end, members of the Black Student Union are expressing concerns about the curriculum at the West Bend High Schools.
The Black Student Union held a meeting Feb. 15 discussing how they felt the public school system has not done the black community justice by neglecting their history in classrooms. The club advocates for history being taught to avoid repeating past mistakes and to achieve a more inclusive and safe future. However, if public school systems do not teach enough history of African-Americans, members of the BSU believe that history will repeat itself.
“While over the years they have greatly improved in teaching anything at all, I still fear the public school system is severely lacking in the black history department,” said Leo Nava, a West senior who serves as the vice president of the Black Student Union. “It’s hard enough that most schools don’t have black teachers to provide a personal experience. Most people couldn’t name five Black Panther party members. I mean, I couldn’t! Because the school system never taught it.”
Former West Bend student Michael Wallace has returned to the high schools as an aide. He is now the club’s advisor and has much to say about the curriculum.
“I feel like we hit the basics as far as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman,” said Wallace when asked if he felt students were taught enough about black history. “But there’s so much more that happened behind the scenes and there is much more that is still happening even to this day that we just don’t know about.”
During a recent conference with a student, Wallace was surprised to discover that the student had never heard about the NAACP or the Jones vs. Board of Education case.
“We get a lot of ‘what’s that?’,” Wallace said. “I feel a lot of what we need to know is kept from us but we stick to the basics because it’s safe. I think we need to stop playing it safe.”
Other members of the club share the same frustration regarding the limited knowledge students have about black history.
“If you asked anybody here to name a famous black person they are either going to say Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, or Malcolm X,” East senior Sal Martinez said.
In that same meeting, the BSU covered the topic of unnecessary book bannings that have occurred this school year. A recent example is Angie Thomas’ “Concrete Rose,” which was removed from the WBHS curriculum even though the district received no formal challenges to the book.
The novel tells the story of a black teenage father who has to make the decision of whether he wants to stay in the gang that his father was a part of, or leave the gang in the hopes that his son won’t follow in his footsteps. According to East senior Selah Garrison, the union’s president, the book holds an important message that the choices you make dictate the outcome of your future.
However, the BSU feels the West Bend School District makes it difficult to spread this message by removing the novel from the high school shelves.
“I don’t think the school should have banned ‘Concrete Rose,’” Nava said. “I understand that some of the themes may not necessarily be school-appropriate but in the context of learning it really should have been given a second thought. ‘Concrete Rose’ is a perfect example of a life not to live, and it would teach students that if they put themselves in situations with gangs, it will be hard to get themselves out. Not talking about it in school does not erase the problem.”
This novel is one of many that have been banned across the nation’s public schools this school year. The BSU hopes that in the future the WBSD will remember that it’s crucial to include stories about people of color, so that students can learn more about their history and themselves without feeling ashamed or uneducated. For the BSU, the reason to read such stories is similar to the reasons Americans recognize Black History Month.
“I feel like it’s important that we celebrate Black History Month due to the fact that a lot of people don’t understand the history or they don’t understand the struggle that we’ve overcome,” Wallace said. “I think it’s important that we are made aware of this is what happened, this is where we are, and this is where we’re going.”
(Top image: Members of the WBHS Black Student Union meet during Flexi time. Photo taken today by Tatiyana Patrick, Current Staff.)
The West Bend Current 