Author: Ashani Ferguson (Page 4 of 8)

The topic I have chosen to do is, Why hasn’t the curriculum changed to reflect contributions to the world made by other people besides white Europeans? I chose this topic because it means a lot to me and I believe this is something people over look or don’t think about. Going to school I would always hear stories about Christopher Columbus, George Washington, king Louis and many more however, I would never hear about African Americans unless it dealt with slavery. This made me wonder, what happened to blacks history? Is slavery all we know or is what people try to imit us to? I asked questions about this issue in class but none of my teachers would have an answer. Even while reading textbooks I noticed blacks aren’t mentioned in any part of history that was seen as a “breakthrough” or “success”. Till this day I still am curious as to why blacks weren’t written into history as more than just a slave. I’m also interested in this topic because of my family background. My whole family is Jamaican and if it wasn’t until me going to college and taking a carribean history class I wouldn’t have known how powerful and strong the people of the caribbean islands were when they fought and rebelled to take back ownership of their land from the french, british and other high nations. I believe this is the type of information that should be taught to students when they are young and hungry to learn. In doing my research I hope to find out why this information was held and also to see who writes and is in charge of the history books and the curriculum because it’s overdue for a change. I’m also curious to know if it’s just the American curriculum that withholds this information to it’s students. It wouldn’t be a surprise to me if not all my questions have answers because I’ve been asking them for years. In addition, when finding my information and sources I think it’s best to start by looking at college professor sources who teach in these fields. 

Topic of curiosity

Curiosity is what makes this small world grow larger daily. It is said that young kids are the most open-minded, sucking up new information daily with no limit. As a little girl I was always amazed at how people grow up to be many things, a pop star, judge, astronaut and much more. Going to school I would always hear stories about Christopher Columbus, George Washington, king Louis and many more however, I would never hear about African Americans unless it dealt with slavery. This made me wonder, what happened to blacks history? Is slavery all we know or is what society try to limit us to? I asked questions about this issue in class but none of my teachers would have an answer. Even while reading textbooks I noticed blacks aren’t mentioned in any part of history that was seen as a “breakthrough” or “success”. Till this day I still am curious as to why blacks weren’t written into history as more than just a slave. It’s evident the education system doesn’t want to give me my answer because it’ll mean having to go against the government’s curriculum. The only time I was ever able to learn more about what blacks did for themselves was when I was taught history by a African American male himself. It’s ironic that compared to the price of a book about a white sailor that “discovered new land” a book about the caribbean and how they freed themselves is triple the price. Granny Nanny, Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, these are only just a few names I discovered after doing my own research on black history. They were leaders and rulers who fought and took back the Caribbean islands from western Europe.