Every Story Matters
Have you ever been trying to talk to someone and it just seems they are not listening? They may even say, “Hold on just a minute.” It usually annoys the person that is trying to share his or her message and sometimes he or she will say, “Forget it” and not share his or her story at all.
This happens so many times in life and in history. If we are not careful, there will continue to be stories that are not told and shared with students. McGraw-Hill, a well-known textbook publisher, recently came under scrutiny when one Texas mother questioned why slaves were referred to as immigrants in her son’s textbook. Admitting they could do better in a social media posting, the textbook publisher said they would fix the error immediately in the digital copy and the next print copy.
Some people surely may think this is not even worth acknowledgment, but it is. The differences in the word slave and immigrant are stark. An immigrant implies someone who is not originally from a place but came seeking opportunity. Slaves were driven out of their own homes to another place, against their will. This is why I say every story matters.
Recently becoming employed in K-12 education, I spoke with a group of curriculum personnel about stories. I passed around the room a lesson I had found online. This lesson is one that is no doubt used in elementary schools. It had four blank spaces at the top and at the bottom were four picture stories. The task of the student was to cut the pictures out and place them at the top in sequential order. This seems well enough. However, the story was about Rosa Parks and the first picture said, “She went to jail,” the next said, “She did not give up her seat,” then “the law was changed. Lastly “people did not use the bus.” I asked the curriculum personnel what was wrong with this lesson. Right away two of them spoke up and said pieces of what I was trying to demonstrate. This lesson, while good for motor skills and teaching students to think in sequential order, is not appropriate for teaching about Rosa Parks. I know there are so many excellent teachers in the world that will simply use this worksheet as a supplement, and not as an entire lesson, but I caution educators to make sure they are telling the story in its entirety because every story matters.
The reason this lesson scares me is because it oversimplifies the civil rights movement and Rosa Parks’ story. Her story did not begin at the Montgomery Bus Boycott and certainly did not end there, but if someone were to ask students and adults today about Rosa Parks, most of them can only tell you she did not give up her seat; it is almost like magic happened in that very moment and there was peace and equality. This is not true. This lesson does not tell why people did not use the bus.
If the instructor is not careful of lessons such as these, many students will look at the civil rights movement as a fairy tale. Rosa sat down, Martin Luther King was the hailed hero that had a dream and marched, and President Obama is the savior of Black people and now we can sing, “We have overcome.” This is not an accurate portrayal. Every story matters. No one can deny the impact that these individuals made but there were countless other stories that remain untold. Please educate students on the history of important events, including but not limited to Black History. If we continue to revise, reduce, and rewrite history, it will have devastating impact on the lives of the youth and the country. Every story does not have a Disney ending. Some are painful. Some are joyful. Some are victorious and triumphant. Some are heart wrenching and soul shaking. However, it is not our duty to only tell the happy and funny ones, because every story matters.