"What does it mean to be American?"

It was my sophomore year in U.S. History, second period with Ms. Roberts.

It was also my third day in America. While everyone else around the table roared with answers like "democracy" and "immigration," I fell silent. I was not American. I was so not American.

Throughout the year, as we perused Eurocentric primary documents from early settlers and discussed the role of white protagonists in the Civil War, I convinced myself that I was learning about someone else's story, that my experiences were irrelevant, and that I didn't belong at the table. For the first time, I found myself in a classroom that didn't seem to have space for me. Although I saw this coming sooner or later, that icky feeling stuck with me. What had been my favorite subject was now just a class to get over with.

My story has a happy ending, yet the first day (and even months) of my sophomore year class underlines a larger issue in our school curricula: the woefully one-sided narratives we were taught and continue to tell.

Teens, what we learn should represent all of who we are, which is exactly why we need greater representation in our school curricula.

Reality Check

First, you may ask, "What's so crazy about our current school curricula?" Let's start with the youngest learners. In 2023, researchers with The Education Trust reviewed 300 of the most popular children's books in K-8 English classes and found that almost all representation remains white. Even with books that involve historically marginalized racial groups, the characters often "lack multidimensionality and agency" or are painted in a negative light. Specifically, 77% of the books feature a white author or illustrator, while 80% of books on historical and social topics lacked marginalized perspectives coupled with more than 2/3 of the books falling victim to stereotypes and inauthentic representation.

Image Credit: Zoshua Colah from Unsplash

Then, if we look at the demographic of children reading these novels, we find that over half of public school students come from families of color, many of whom have parents who speak another language at home. In a recent Pew Research Center study, white students only make up 48% of enrollment in traditional public schools. As for teachers, per the U.S. Department of Education, 79% of public school teachers are white and non-Hispanic, evidencing a likely reason for the lack of perspective in what is chosen to be taught.

As we go higher into the grades, this phenomenon persists. The history of Native Americans, for instance, is completely neglected in both K-12 classrooms as well as US History textbooks after the 1890s. In fact, a Pennsylvania State University study in 2015 suggests that 87% of content taught about Native Americans solely exists in the pre-1900s context, while 27 states even fail to mention a single Native American individual in their history standards. "When one looks at the bigger picture from the qualitative data, it is easy to argue that the narrative of U.S. history is painfully one-sided in its telling of the American narrative, especially with regard to Indigenous Peoples’ experiences," Penn State author writes.

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Change Isn't Easy: Challenges & Resilience

It's not just if POC history is taught at all, what's so difficult is also how it's taught. USA Today journalist N'dea Yancey-Bragg was shocked to find from a Southern Poverty Law Center Report that only 8% of high school seniors could identify slavery as a central cause of the Civil War.

Even when African American history is taught, K-12 public schools offer a sanitized version of this important history, focusing on fingers that are "palatable to white audiences" from "white-centered" perspectives, says founder of CARTER Center for Black History Education LaGarrett King. "We teach about Black history but we don't teach through Black history. We should teach from Black perspectives."

Instances like this show that change is not easy. There has also been resistance to efforts attempting to diversify curricula. 44 states have introduced bills or taken legal steps to restrict teaching critical race theory at all, deeming it as an "inherently divisive concept," while many of the books disallowed by recent censorship efforts involve stories about Black characters by Black authors.

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Most significantly, it's important to acknowledge that change won't happen overnight. Especially for teachers, it takes a lot of time and effort to decolonize their teaching after many have been a part of the system for so long. Colleen Elep, an Ontario teacher and second-generation Filipino, presents a teacher's perspective. "It's easy to get triggered by ideas and perspectives that don't align with the worldview [we've] held and it can feel onerous to spend time and effort to change [our] programs." She suggests that teachers start with smaller changes. So that with time and grace, they will be able to make "more students feel seen, engaged, and connected to the place they learn."

Success Stories: Impact of Representation

Despite the difficulties in overcoming challenges, change is possible. And these changes demonstrate how important representation is.

According to AMLE (The Association for Middle-Level Education), students who feel they have a voice in class are seven times more likely to feel motivated than those who do not. Indeed, it is integral for children to feel represented and heard, and that they belong in their schools.

Located in Chicago's historic Chinatown, Haines Elementary K-8 School does just that. While the school has long offered bilingual education for immigrant English language learners, they keep exploring new avenues to build community and belonging, recognizing that honoring their students' identity is what keeps them feeling seen and engaged. Of course, this starts with language, where signs are translated into Chinese characters and walls are covered with cultural themes from all over the world.

The students' cultures are also incorporated into the curricula. Teachers at Haines choose books and topics related to the students' culture and languages. English teacher Rebecca Grober, building an annual poetry unit centered around haiku, says "I make it personal, about them, and then their interest is piqued because then they’re always doing that comparison with their lives."

Image Credit: Aric Cheng from Unsplash

Students are also taught strong social and emotional skills like empathy to build school culture. Every child in the classroom participates in forming a code of conduct that encourages responsibility and self-awareness. Some classrooms also encourage students to improve school culture by celebrating moments of kindness in the school community.

These efforts for belonging as well as cultural immersion and representation are not unseen. Haines is not only one of the highest-performing public schools in Illinois but also the city's best neighborhood school and National Title 1 Distinguished School. It is also a prime example where representation in the classroom, community, and curriculum truly makes the students more engaged and the school a better place for all.

Here's What You Can Do

Haines Elementary is, uniquely, Haines. Not all schools across the country have the same circumstances or are able to implement the same programs. Yet, teachers, students, and parents alike in any school district can push for more representation in their school communities.

Going back to books, "mother" of multicultural children's literature Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop tells us that "we need diverse books because all our children deserve to know that they have a voice in the choir that sings the song of America." We are fortunate enough today to have access to an immense array of authors and stories from Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, and LGTBQ+ authors. So, teachers who teach both younger kids and older kids can create reading lists that reflect the students that they teach. Parents and students can suggest important novels that bolster representation, too.

Beyond language arts, history and social science teachers can also start by making independent inquiry regular practice as well as designing assignments that encourage students to seek different perspectives and practice critical thinking. Even smaller, whether it's suggesting a new text or posing a multicultural discussion question, both students and teachers can work together to make representation a key piece to our school curriculum.

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Sometimes, I think back to my 10th-grade US History class. I now understand that what caused my negative feelings wasn't intentional, but, in a way, systematic.

Eventually, I did enjoy learning about the nuances of U.S. History, from the founding ideals of democracy and freedom to the powerful voices of the Civil Rights movement. Yet, I do wonder, too, if everyone in that classroom would've found more interest and joy if we were not taught from the perspective of white colonists and old men. Perhaps, we could've learned from the eyes of those who were marginalized and most impacted -- from those who looked like all of us and told our stories.