Cultivating Culture on Campus
On Oct. 8, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 101, which requires all California public high schools to implement an Ethnic Studies course starting in the 2025-26 school year; the class is to span the course of one semester and be mandatory in order to graduate. Ethnic Studies is the study of race, ethnicity and indigeneity in the U.S. The course also addresses the experiences of specific communities of color and reasons why concepts such as xenophobia, anti-Blackness and Islamophobia are perpetuated (The California Department of Education). Peninsula’s campus has been reported to encompass 39.93 percent Asian, 11.34 percent Hispanic, 2.58 percent Black and 7.94 percent other students of color as of 2019. As a result of this course becoming an elective this year, students have the chance to feel more represented.
Much of the history taught in American compulsory education centers around the Western world as the most reliable source of knowledge (Samuel Center for Social Connectedness). Mandatory classes labeled as “history” tend to focus on European history, while more diverse perspectives such as Indigenous and Black histories are often not offered or taught as optional electives. For example, African American history in the American school curriculum usually focuses on the span of time between the beginning of slavery and the end of the civil rights movement, omitting much of African history and culture beyond that period of time (The Atlantic). World History Honors, Ethics, Comparative Religion and Ethnic Studies teacher Mindy Webster believes instructing intersectional material is necessary to spread effective conversations and ideas.
“In Ethnic Studies, we talk about the areas of history that are not focused [on] in a traditional U.S. history class and [examine] different perspectives,” Webster said. “I teach [about five] groups: Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Pacific Islanders, [and people in] the Middle East. Hopefully, if people can learn to discuss [nuanced] ideas in a respectful way, we can [also] come together on these controversial issues and find peace [through] discussion.”
The U.S. school system has a long history of under-representing racial minorities in their curriculum (George Lucas Educational Foundation). In a 2015 study conducted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, it was found that the majority of teachers in the U.S. believed Black history to be essential in understanding U.S. history, but only under 10 percent of U.S. history classes were devoted to Black history (The Century Foundation). Starting last year, members of the Black Student Union (BSU) advocated for an Ethnic Studies course in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) because they felt as if they were not being represented in an inclusive way. In one of the final school board meetings on implementing Ethnic Studies occurring on Jan. 6, quotes from the BSU were highlighted. BSU board member and senior Kourtney Williams, who wrote an essay to PVPUSD explaining why an Ethnic Studies class is important, believes that while there is still space for improvement, the elective is overall beneficial and inclusive.
“The [school] board fits [the histories of numerous] ethnicities into a one-semester class, so [it is going to be] hard to address everything in that time,” Williams said. “[However,] I am grateful that our district is at least offering it as an [elective] class because students [will] still get the opportunity to learn about different backgrounds [and will be able to] approach each other with civility instead of prejudice.”
Educating students about race and identity in an interdisciplinary way through an Ethnic Studies course has a positive impact on future careers, citizenship and reasoning skills (National Education Association). One of the goals of the curriculum is to bring social awareness and responsiveness toward a common goal, as Ethnic Studies provides a connection that links education with community and encourages students to be the change and bring civic participation to state and federal degrees (The California Department of Education). Senior Amanda Rucker, who is currently taking the Ethnic Studies elective, believes that it is better for students, no matter what ethnicity, to learn history from more sources than the generally-taught, whitewashed narrative.“It is important to learn about history from every background because without this you have an incomplete story,” Rucker said. “Usually, [students of color] are targeted in certain instances [of ignorance], like with topics such as slavery or because of 9/11. This course shows how [true] history includes much more than these singular instances. [Learning these diverse histories] similarly affects [white] students in the same way and widens perspectives.”
