Great post, Mark. Well said and thought-provoking.

Although it wasn't great that my generation was taught to revere the founding fathers, demonizing them seems no better. And the new lesson plan does the opposite of what we as a society need right now. Instead of inspiring the youth to fix our broken world, it encourages them to regard that world as the devil, and themselves as its victims.

I might've told you this, I'm not sure. But I remember being on the committee to create the curriculum for the first ethnic studies program at the high school. I was the only one that spoke up and said the curriculum shouldn't just be about the history of oppression on specific groups of people. We should be talking about the social movements that arose from the struggle, how movements get built, and the ways in which people started working together to make a positive difference. I also mentioned that the last unit should be about present-day applications, like communication skills to talk across differences, reflections on healthy activism etc.

No one responded to my share (at least in the meeting) and it wasn't incorporated into the curriculum. I feel like the potential of an ethnic studies class is diminished when we don't also focus on what we're for, and what unites us despite the oppression.