Blog Archive for Regional Spotlights

Editor’s Note: Over the next several days, Pass The Chalk features posts in honor of Black History Month. We do so in full recognition that any day, week, or month, set aside to commemorate the history and experiences of a group of people runs the risk of siloing those perspectives in the oeuvre of shared human experience. It is not enough to talk about black history for one month out of the year. But in shining a spotlight on the perspectives and experiences of African-Americans in the coming days, we seek to lend ourselves a richer vocabulary to better understand the challenges and hopes of our shared human condition.

This post was originally published on The Monitor and has been reprinted with permission.

In 1926, historian, philosopher, and scholar Carter G. Woodson declared the second week of February as "Negro History Week."

With the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass falling in that second week, it was only appropriate to celebrate a history systematically left out of curriculum and national consciousness would occur when the nation was celebrating the lives of two freedom fighters. Woodson’s original intent was that this week would no longer need to exist when Black History was justly represented in the story of America.

Ninety-three years later, I am pushed to consider two questions: Why does Black History month matter? And why does Black History month matter down here in the Rio Grande Valley?

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Children near the Washington Monument.] Photo by U.S. National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons 

Mark Adato (Hawai’i ‘09) is currently in his 4th year teaching high school science at James Campbell High School in Ewa Beach, Hawai’i on the island of O’ahu.

There’s a movement growing in Hawai’i, and as a teacher, I am proud to be part of it along with hundreds of other teachers from more than 80 schools across the islands of our state.  Teachers in Hawai’i have been operating under the same contract since 2009 when a 5% pay cut was imposed after negotiations between the governor and our union failed.  

Since then, the governor has been imposing this “last, best, and final offer” on teachers and stretching the legal battle we’ve been fighting with him to an indefinite end, setting a poor precedent for education in Hawai’i.  It’s not an issue of making enough money; it’s an issue of teacher retention and how education is prioritized in our state.  We finally decided to do something about it.

Josh Sparks taught in the 2008 New Mexico corps.

I am Appalachian, born and raised. More particularly, I am central Appalachian- I grew up in Jackson, KY, the seat of Breathitt County, which is located in the foothills of the Central Appalachian Mountains. Growing up, I spent my summers hiking in the lush green hills behind my house, spending time with my grandparents and learning about their generation (and mainly the things I take for granted), and at the city pool where my friends and I did our best to annoy the lifeguards every day (later, I would become one; karma’s definitely not fun). During the school year, I surrounded myself with friends who were dedicated to their studies and their futures. We spent hours in tutoring studying for pre-calculus and re-writing our drafts for English class. And we spent many evenings drafting and practicing our legislative proposals for our state’s Youth Assembly (yeah, I was a dork). All in all, I loved my small town Appalachian life.

Photo courtesy of Brandon Goins via Wkimedia Commons

Robert Cook is managing director of Teach For America’s Native Achievement Initiative.

Today federal and state workers are taking the day off in honor and celebration of Columbus Day.  Retail and department stores are marking items off for their annual Columbus Day Sales and our nation’s school children are enjoying the end of a 3-day weekend. 

Beginning in 1934 when President Roosevelt signed Columbus Day into law as a federal holiday, we take the second Monday in October off as a nation to honor the historical discovery of the “New World.”  At least that is what I learned as a young boy in school.  Today, as a grown man and an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation here in South Dakota, I have another take on this national holiday and the education myths of Christopher Columbus. I am proud to say I do not honor this day as Columbus Day.

Columbus wasn't the first European to land in America; in fact he didn’t even “land” on any of the main lands of the Americas. Historical evidence points to Leif Erickson, as the first European to land and settle a Norse village on Newfoundland some 500 years earlier. When Columbus did reach land in 1492, he “discovered” islands in the Caribbean already inhabited by scores of diverse and indigenous Native tribes. 

Photo credit: Native American dancers at the Pie Town Pie Festival, New Mexico. jclarson via Wikimedia Commons