{"id":12938,"date":"2022-01-13T09:13:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T13:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=12938"},"modified":"2022-01-13T09:13:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T13:13:17","slug":"revisiting-how-history-is-taught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/revisiting-how-history-is-taught\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting how history is taught"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park, Wilmington, Del.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Two University of Maryland Eastern Shore history professors are assisting Delaware State University colleagues in crafting recommendations to expand how U.S. history is taught in \u201cFirst State\u201d public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Marshall F. Stevenson Jr., dean of UMES\u2019 School of Education, Social Sciences and the Arts, and Dr. Arlisha R. Norwood are among 10 educators working to identify specific ways Delaware should incorporate a broader narrative of Black history in the curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s making history multi-racial,\u201d Norwood said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about capturing historical interpretations of events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Del State secured a $230,000 state grant this past fall to review and suggest revisions to history education taught in the eighth and 11th<\/sup> grades to comply with a Delaware law enacted earlier in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project currently is headed by Del State\u2019s Dr. Niklas Robinson, an associate history professor and acting chairman of the Dover institution\u2019s history, political science and philosophy department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not designing a new curriculum, or a delivery system, or a learning system,\u201d said Robinson, who grew up in Cambridge, Md.  \u201cWe\u2019re trying to identify voids in the subject matter, and make suggestions on how to fill them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaware\u2019s new law came about, Robinson said, in response to a grassroots movement by high school and college students who lobbied state lawmakers to support a formal review and an update of the history curriculum.  Robinson said there was broad consensus that important elements of the contributions of Blacks to American history were missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two working groups currently are focused on shaping recommendations that address the abolition of slavery and the \u201cLost Cause,\u201d short-hand for \u201can interpretation of the Civil War \u2026 that attempts to preserve the honor of the South by casting the Confederate defeat in the best possible light,\u201d according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.  The first reports on those topics are due Feb. 1 to Delaware\u2019s state education department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Del State \u2013 UMES collaborators will continue working throughout the spring, guided by the law directing public school districts and charter schools to follow a K-12 curriculum \u201cthat shall provide instruction on Black history,\u201d including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n