Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991 TAG: 9103010523
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Black students agree and say they want to see more done to teach them their history throughout the year.
"You learn about slaves and the cotton gin, then it ends, like black history ends there," said Patrick Henry High School student Marsha Banks, 17.
American history classes incorporate only about one paragraph of black history, said fellow student Anidra Anderson, 16. "The books were [written] from a white perspective," she said, which is "totally out of tune" with the black perspective.
With school budgets being tight, some educators are putting in their own time to teach black students their history year-round. Patrick Henry and Virginia Western Community College each started African-American classes in 1989.
Budget cuts stopped classes from being added to William Fleming High School's curriculum, but a geography teacher is starting a club for students of all cultures, not just black Americans, to talk and learn about each other.
"Education is the great equalizer among men," said Maxine Crowder-Wilson, administrative officer of continuing education at Virginia Western. "When any segment of society is lacking in education, its people continue to be enslaved and inferior to those who are empowered to determine their fate."
Blacks need to learn about themselves in high school and college, she said. All races should learn about each other, she said, but African-American studies should be taught separately. "It's diluted when included in another class."
Such classes are ideal to raise self-esteem, said Jamila Coleman, curator of the Harrison Museum of African American Culture. Coleman participated in the first class at Virginia Western and helped recruit students for the next year.
"If you know yourself, you don't have to fear anyone else," she said. "We [blacks] know less about ourselves than anybody . . .. We didn't just float in here on air. We came from somewhere, and not from a place called Soul or Blackness."
The school system owes blacks the opportunity to learn about themselves, and blacks owe their ancestors to learn their history, she said.
At Fleming, world geography teacher Pat Butler wants an American Studies class that incorporates all the racial groups.
"All of the groups came together to make America," she said. "I would love to see a publisher come up with a book that has all of us in it, on the time line where we're supposed to be.
"It didn't take us [blacks] one month to spread throughout the states. It's all throughout history," said Butler, who tries to incorporate blacks wherever into her materials in her world geography classes.
Another problem of adding a new class is that students have enough trouble taking all the required classes without trying to schedule electives, Butler said. As a result, she decided to organize a culture club. About 20 students have signed up.
ChriSonia Winfree, 14, said she prefers a club because more people can get involved and will open doors to communication and understanding between blacks, whites, Asian-Americans and other races at the school.
"Blacks need the background and, quite frankly, whites need to learn it, too," said English teacher Mason Powell, who tried to start an African-American class with Butler.
Fleming Principal Alyce Szathmary likes the club idea more than offering a separate class. "The impact would be greater on the whole school," because of the monthly schoolwide activities the club plans to offer.
A separate African-American studies class perpetuates a separate attitude, Szathmary said.
Patrick Henry High School art teacher Fletcher Nichols and history teacher Robin Neamo-Parker disagree. A separate class is necessary, they say.
"We've lost our culture," Nichols said, "because no one teaches it. Because no one knows it."
Neamo-Parker and Nichols volunteer to teach the noon class at Patrick Henry, giving up part of their time for lunch and advising students. They came up with the idea about five years ago, but the class was not added to the curriculum until 1989.
Lewis Barlow, a Patrick Henry dean, would not speculate on whether the class would continue if Neamo-Parker and Nichols decided to quit.
"It's not difficult to convince us something is needed," Barlow said. "It's the finances you have to consider."
Lack of students has not been a problem, though. Last year, the class started out with 23. It's increased to 32 students this year.
Lee Cullop, 17, one of three white students in the class, said he took the class at Nichols' suggestion. Although he was scared of the black students at first, Cullop said he now has a greater understanding of blacks.
"I always judged people by skin color and clothes," he said. "My whole view of life is completely different," said Cullop, who encourages other white students to take the class.
"In this class, I heard stuff I'd never heard before," said Mike Fluellen, 17.
History books don't mention that blacks built the pyramids or created hieroglyphics, said Fluellen, who would be reluctant to take the class if it was taught by white teachers. Whites, he said, don't know what it's like to be black.
The class has heightened respect for themselves and each other, Patrick Henry student Marsha Banks said. "We don't have to be afraid to be black," she said.
by CNB