Hamden schools pushed to be more culturally aware

Slavery play in school sparks calls for awareness at administration level

(W.E.B.) Du Bois calls ‘amused contempt and pity’ is unfortunately a perennial issue of schooling,” the writers said.

While lessons in social reconstruction and progressivism have been present throughout school curriculum, the “experiences of people of color were precariously absent or, if included, presented in a way that maintained Whiteness,” the authors wrote.

Hamden school leaders said they’re working on culturally diverse curriculum as part of their mission of equity.

“Ensuring that our students understand and appreciate the horrors associated with the enslavement of African-Americans in this country and around the world is a significant albeit critical responsibility we have as educators,” the administration said in a statement posted late Thursday in response to pushback from residents about the curriculum.

“We are committed to working with local and national scholars to determine the best way for us to have our students learn about and understand not just the enslavement of African-Americans, but to appreciate and become aware of the entirety of the African-American experience,” the statement said.

Connecticut passed legislation last session requiring public school curriculum to include African American, Puerto Rican and Latino studies. The State Education Resource Center will develop the course, which the state Board of Education needs to review and approved no later than Jan. 1, 2021.

Beginning in the 2022 school year, district schools need to begin offering a black and Latino studies course in grades 9-12.

But scholars have said a new teaching mandate without complementary teacher training is useless.

“There’s a way to teach it and we don’t feel like the teachers are prepared,” Dumas said. “They need to have more training and instruction. They need to reach out to NAACP and all experts in the area. Everything about this was wrong to the highest level. I think a lot of this was ignorance and insensitivity.”