Hannah Chambers was famous for teaching her history class in costume to engage her students at the old segregated Wiley Bates High School in Anne Arundel County.
Wednesday she called the new state curriculum in black history “an old history teacher?s dream come true.”
“There?s been information out there about the real story, and I?m so pleased these people are getting together to bring this out to share it with everyone.”
Local and state education leaders joined representatives from the black community to mark the release of a new curriculum in African-American history in Anne Arundel County schools.
The series of lessons, developed by the Maryland Department of Education, is designed to teach students about the experiences of blacks in Maryland and closer to home in Anne Arundel County. The curriculum will draw on resources from the Baltimore-based Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture, and students will cap their learning experience with a visit.
The museum has developed other partnerships with schools in Howard and Baltimore counties. Anne Arundel schools will use the curriculum for grades four through eight beginning in the fall. The high-school lessons are still being written.
“When you take a look at the textbooks, they?re written for the nation at large,” said Terry Poisson, acting coordinator of social studies for Anne Arundel County schools. “This personalizes the lessons for Maryland history and integrates it throughout the year.”
Anne Arundel Community College has partnered with Anne Arundel County schools to help teachers learn how to present the often sensitive and uncomfortable material.
“This is long over due,” said Carl Snowden, a civil rights activist and adviser to Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens. “I?m old enough to remember when there was no African-American studies program in the high schools at all. And I?m glad the teachers will be sensitized to it, because some of it?s not pleasant.”
