My colleague and I used the book, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson to teach about school segregation and segregation in general to our fourth grade students.
Our private school, predominantly White and Asian students loved the story, which we discussed in book clubs, along with reading aloud, The Promise of…
My colleague and I used the book, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson to teach about school segregation and segregation in general to our fourth grade students.
Our private school, predominantly White and Asian students loved the story, which we discussed in book clubs, along with reading aloud, The Promise of Change by Jo Anne Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy, a novel in verse about Jo Anne's experiences integrating a high school in Tennessee. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40046144
Ms. Boyce even zoomed into our classes to discuss her book and experiences. The children appreciated the story, which deals with a lot of issues and is a mystery. They also liked its intersectionality as per comments in their discussion preparation. This tied into social studies on the question of The Meaning of Race, and a year long study of children's novels with characters from different backgrounds and time periods. Teaching these books has made me very aware of segregation in housing and schools. When my mother came to this country from Nazi Germany, she was shocked at the self-righteousness of Americans when she saw so much racism. She told me that it is the reason that we do not have the good social supports that European countries have, because racist White Americans would rather have no one have these social supports than allow Blacks to have them. Given over 100 years after slavery has ended we still have a two tiered society, dominated by White Supremacy, it does not look good. The current supreme court does not help.
My colleague and I used the book, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson to teach about school segregation and segregation in general to our fourth grade students.
https://varianjohnson.com/books/the-parker-inheritance/story-behind-parker-inheritance/
Our private school, predominantly White and Asian students loved the story, which we discussed in book clubs, along with reading aloud, The Promise of Change by Jo Anne Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy, a novel in verse about Jo Anne's experiences integrating a high school in Tennessee. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40046144
Ms. Boyce even zoomed into our classes to discuss her book and experiences. The children appreciated the story, which deals with a lot of issues and is a mystery. They also liked its intersectionality as per comments in their discussion preparation. This tied into social studies on the question of The Meaning of Race, and a year long study of children's novels with characters from different backgrounds and time periods. Teaching these books has made me very aware of segregation in housing and schools. When my mother came to this country from Nazi Germany, she was shocked at the self-righteousness of Americans when she saw so much racism. She told me that it is the reason that we do not have the good social supports that European countries have, because racist White Americans would rather have no one have these social supports than allow Blacks to have them. Given over 100 years after slavery has ended we still have a two tiered society, dominated by White Supremacy, it does not look good. The current supreme court does not help.