Although our class learns about people of color all year long in social studies, we put a special emphasis on it throughout the month of February. We are lucky enough here, in Cornville, Maine, to have a very diverse classroom. Thirty-seven percent of our class represents students of color.
The theme this year is 2021 – The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. It is difficult to teach American history without coming upon many examples of African Americans, not only their trials and tribulations, but the extraordinary contributions that they have made to the United States of America. African Americans were here even before the Mayflower arrived in the New World.
So far this month we have learned about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the history of racism in the Americas. Currently we are studying about Benjamin Banneker and Langston Hughes, and we have created artwork about Ceremonial African Tribal Masks.
-Special Education Teacher with the Cornville Campus
