Teaching Virginia History Honestly
After almost a year of controversy caused by Governor Glenn Youngkin's attempts to politicize and whitewash the teaching of history in our state's curriculum, the Virginia Board of Education enacted new Standards of Learning last week, which will guide what our students will learn in history and social science classes from kindergarten through high school. As a mom of five children enrolled in Albemarle County Public School, I have watched the Youngkin administration's efforts to outsource the draft standards to right-wing individuals and think tanks who seek to promote a particular ideological viewpoint with great concern. While the final version of the new Standard of Learning is significantly improved from earlier drafts, it took extensive efforts to undo many of the Youngkin administration's proposed changes, including hundreds of people who spoke out at forums across the Commonwealth. As Anne Holton, a Virgina Board of Education member (and wife of Sen. Tim Kaine) who helped lead the fight against proposed changes that would marginalized the contributions of diverse people and groups stated: “We made big improvements to flawed draft Administration put forth in November — we added back in Indigenous Peoples Day, restored Africa and Asia to third grade world history, included reccs from African American History Education Commission, did better on labor history and stories of our immigrant communities, highlighted suppression of AA voting rights and econ opportunities through much of 20th Century, and more.“
There's encouraging news locally too. With leaders from the Social Studies and Equity teams, ACPS teachers and staff have been working hard to create lessons and units that incorporate inquiry-based investigations into history and social science classes to help students develop critical thinking skills and build content knowledge that will strengthen their literacy skills. Our teachers see the Standards of Learning as the floor and build up from there. This includes the extensive work put into the Reframing the Narrative initiative, whose goal is to prepare students for democracy and citizenship in our increasingly diverse society.
As a candidate for the at-large seat on the Albemarle County School Board, I am committed to fighting for an education that is inclusive, accurate, and reflects the diverse history of our country. Our children deserve to learn the truth about our history, both the good and the bad. By attempting to erase or downplay certain aspects of our history, we are not only doing a disservice to our children, but we are also perpetuating a cycle of misinformation and ignorance. I believe that we owe it to our children to provide them with the best possible education, one that prepares them for the realities of the world and equips them with the critical thinking skills necessary to be active and engaged citizens.
