Viva la Black History Month!

I find it highly ironic that Donna would pick "Holidays" as tonight's topic.  Consider the following exchange from this morning:

Me: "Does anyone know what this month is?"

Student in my 2nd period class: "Black History month"

Another student in my 2nd period class: "Is there a White History Month?"

How do you recover from that?  

Me, ever the Devil's Advocate, asked, "Why would we need to have a 'White History Month?'"  

My 8th graders could not come up with an answer.  So, I asked, "Okay, why do we celebrate Black History Month?"

Crickets.  Not surprisingly, my African-American students were able to come up with a response.  One student even used the excuse that they were from the North, which was why he/she did not have knowledge of segregation and our country's history.   

During class change, I told a co-worker about the exchange, and she stated that she agreed with the one student who questioned whether we had a "White History Month."

"So, you don't think that we should celebrate Black History Month?"

"I just think that if we celebrate one, we should celebrate them all.  Asian, Hispanic, White . . . "

So, why do we celebrate Black History Month?   Is it not to recognize the achievements of African-American who were able to achieve despite great adversity?  People like Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Ella Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston . . . If we did not celebrate them, would students know about them?  Isn't that kind of the point?  Because we do not always include them in our studies?  

So, does this mean that I am not going to emphasize February as Black History Month.  Most definitely not.  Do I forget that my students are only 8th graders?  Sometimes.  Does that give them the excuse not to know about what the United States was like less fifty years ago?  And does that mean that I shouldn't educate them?  If ever there were a time for them to become socially active, it is now.  I'm not trying to make them like me, but I am trying to make sure that they leave me more educated about the world so that they can make a difference in the world. 

Or at least I hope.