footstepsfrom#27
08-20-2009, 01:57 PM
Wow...this is in Mississippi? Who would have thought it?
http://www.wapt.com/education/20305605/detail.html
Miss. Public Schools Add Civil Rights Education To Curriculum
3-Year Effort Nearly Complete
POSTED: 1:20 pm CDT August 6, 2009
UPDATED: 1:43 pm CDT August 6, 2009
JACKSON, Miss. -- A three-year effort to begin integrating civil rights education into Mississippi Public Schools is nearly complete.
Passed in 2006, Senate Bill 2718 called for the state to make civil rights and human rights education a part of the K-12 curriculum, and created the Mississippi Civil Rights Education Commission to assist in the development of that curriculum. Recently, the Mississippi Department of Education’s state board approved the 2010 Mississippi U.S. History: Post-Reconstruction to Present framework, which includes a civil rights/human rights content strand with a competency and objectives.
The Mississippi Department of Education worked with the MCREC, a group of educators, historians and community leaders who have a strong knowledge of the civil rights movement, to establish the new curriculum.
“The Mississippi Civil Rights Education Commission offered the Mississippi Department of Education keen insight into the history of civil rights movements in the country at large and in particular the Mississippi civil rights story from a broad based movement perspective and a grassroots, local perspective,” said MDE social studies specialist Chauncey Spears. “It is our intention that students gain the understanding from this and other courses in the framework that social change comes from people who are informed and inspired by the purest democratic ideas and traditions of our country. These people then act to empower the relatively voiceless and powerless in our community, to be full participants in and beneficiaries of our cherished democracy.”
Commission member Dr. Ollye Shirley drew from her own experience as a civil rights veteran in helping create the curriculum. “This is an important project because all of the children in this state, especially African-American children, need to learn about the contributions of all people,” she said. “We have all played an important role in the development of this country.”
In order to acquaint teachers with the new curriculum, the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State University, Teaching for Change, a nonprofit dedicated to building social justice in the classroom, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi, in collaboration with the MDE, will begin this fall conducting seminars and workshops as well as provide teachers with primary civil rights era documents and other educational resources they can utilize in the classroom. In addition, a Web site has been created that lists people, places, and events of the Mississippi civil rights movement in a county-by-county format. The idea is for teachers and students to be able to explore the civil rights movement history in their own communities and add to the knowledge of this history to the Web site.
“The richness of the resources provided through this curriculum will motivate teachers and students to look at the civil rights movement through a modern lens, inspiring innovation and self-realization in the classroom,” said Sarah Alford, a Jackson Public School teacher who also serves on the Commission. “Allowing students to play an active role in developing the Web site will help empower them, and, I believe, help ensure that all Mississippi students are voices for justice and human rights. There is nothing more important.”
http://www.wapt.com/education/20305605/detail.html
Miss. Public Schools Add Civil Rights Education To Curriculum
3-Year Effort Nearly Complete
POSTED: 1:20 pm CDT August 6, 2009
UPDATED: 1:43 pm CDT August 6, 2009
JACKSON, Miss. -- A three-year effort to begin integrating civil rights education into Mississippi Public Schools is nearly complete.
Passed in 2006, Senate Bill 2718 called for the state to make civil rights and human rights education a part of the K-12 curriculum, and created the Mississippi Civil Rights Education Commission to assist in the development of that curriculum. Recently, the Mississippi Department of Education’s state board approved the 2010 Mississippi U.S. History: Post-Reconstruction to Present framework, which includes a civil rights/human rights content strand with a competency and objectives.
The Mississippi Department of Education worked with the MCREC, a group of educators, historians and community leaders who have a strong knowledge of the civil rights movement, to establish the new curriculum.
“The Mississippi Civil Rights Education Commission offered the Mississippi Department of Education keen insight into the history of civil rights movements in the country at large and in particular the Mississippi civil rights story from a broad based movement perspective and a grassroots, local perspective,” said MDE social studies specialist Chauncey Spears. “It is our intention that students gain the understanding from this and other courses in the framework that social change comes from people who are informed and inspired by the purest democratic ideas and traditions of our country. These people then act to empower the relatively voiceless and powerless in our community, to be full participants in and beneficiaries of our cherished democracy.”
Commission member Dr. Ollye Shirley drew from her own experience as a civil rights veteran in helping create the curriculum. “This is an important project because all of the children in this state, especially African-American children, need to learn about the contributions of all people,” she said. “We have all played an important role in the development of this country.”
In order to acquaint teachers with the new curriculum, the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State University, Teaching for Change, a nonprofit dedicated to building social justice in the classroom, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi, in collaboration with the MDE, will begin this fall conducting seminars and workshops as well as provide teachers with primary civil rights era documents and other educational resources they can utilize in the classroom. In addition, a Web site has been created that lists people, places, and events of the Mississippi civil rights movement in a county-by-county format. The idea is for teachers and students to be able to explore the civil rights movement history in their own communities and add to the knowledge of this history to the Web site.
“The richness of the resources provided through this curriculum will motivate teachers and students to look at the civil rights movement through a modern lens, inspiring innovation and self-realization in the classroom,” said Sarah Alford, a Jackson Public School teacher who also serves on the Commission. “Allowing students to play an active role in developing the Web site will help empower them, and, I believe, help ensure that all Mississippi students are voices for justice and human rights. There is nothing more important.”