Back History Month Program

How do you handle walking the line of telling the truth without being “divisive” or “offensive” concerning Black History Month?

I’m an elementary music teacher, and was tasked last minute with preparing a program on the 28th. Since that means I only have chorus 4 rehearsals, I wanted some of the focus off of the singing, so I hoped to do a play. However, we don’t have enough time/money for a play, so instead I was going to have a showcase of poetry and music by African Americans. One of the songs I chose is Oh, Freedom!, which mentions slavery and is in the style of field songs frequently sung by enslaved people. I also picked a poem that was published by an African American while he was still enslaved. Apparently this is all too “negative,” even though the program continues forward chronologically to include many poems and songs from more modern times (Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” etc). A teacher narrator ties together the poems and songs to tell a story of triumph, beauty in pain, and courage to dream. Each poem is tied to an ELA and SS standard in my state, and each song is tied to a music standard. I’m proud of what I managed to pull together last minute, and it took a lot of research and work on my part, but now my principal is requiring me to change it because he’s worried about all the phone calls he will get from offended (white) parents.

Obviously I won’t do the program without my principal’s approval, but I feel like doing anything else is insincere and I feel like we are censoring unnecessarily.

What would you do?

Submitted February 06, 2020 at 03:18PM by MxReLee https://ift.tt/2UCBLvX