by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman
With the passing of Ted Kennedy much footage was shown of the role family members played in helping to assure equal rights for all Americans. We need to make sure that kids understand that those battles weren’t won just by legislation.
According to the Associated Press, the Mississippi Department of Education is planning a curriculum on civil rights that will reach every youngster K-12 in the school year 2010-2011.
While New Jersey’s school kids learn about slavery and Philadelphia has developed an African-American curriculum, Mississippi will be the first in the nation to mandate teaching about civil rights.
Deborah Menkart, of Teaching for Change, who will train the teachers in discussing the mandate, points out that today’s students may know about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., but need to learn the untold story-- the groundwork before 1954.
New text books won’t be required; teachers can develop their own lesson plans from curricular materials and are encouraged to incorporate those in the community who lived through these historical events to make the experience more valuable.
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