After reflection for EDCI 401 The Civil Rights Movement

After Reflection

     I was convinced when I wrote my before reflection that to mandate the Civil Rights Movement for a semester throughout Mississippi for grades k-12 was a wonderful idea. Now that we have had various assignments and a trip to the Civil Rights Museum to prepare us to teach this subject I am doubly convinced that this is not only a great idea, but a much needed area to include in the Mississippi curriculum.

     The Civil Rights Museum was one of the most interesting museums that I have been to in a while. I think that a field trip to this museum would be educational as well as an enjoyable one. By high school the students may have a general understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, but to see this place where Martin Luther King Jr.  was murdered and then the boarding house to get a view of the hotel from the angle of the shot coming from the gun of James Earl Ray is a part of the event that is not mentioned much neither is the conspiracy theory or the intricate details about how Ray managed to flee the country to England, and the following capture and extraditment which would be a good discussion and lesson

     I am also taking another course this term which is African American Women’s history. This class combined with EDCI 401 has given me such a boost in wanting to teach not only the Civil Rights Movement, but the entire plight of equal rights from the beginning of this country. How can we expect the students to have the responsibility of being good citizens when they have no idea what this privilege cost so many people.

     I found myself feeling very inadequate in my knowledge of the movement, but what disturbed me the most was my perspective of the period of time. By exploring this issue in class I have had my eyes opened to a completely different perspective. As educators we can present the Civil Rights Movement in a way that includes all children and all perspectives in a whole picture of the wrongs in the U.S. I said in my before reflection that if we do not understand the past how can we learn from those mistakes and not make them again. I stand on that still.

     To give students a bunch of facts and present them to the class and hope they learn it is so far from the way we should be teaching Social Studies. Through hands on projects and a learning environment that is exciting and fun we will be able to infuse this information into the student’s life instead of until the next test. Somehow we should take teaching of the Civil Rights Movement and Social Studies to the next level by allowing the students to prod and examine the information from a black, white, male, and female perspective in order to complete the entire picture. The days of cut and dry lessons are over and before us lies a new world in which a student is as much in charge of his/her learning as the teacher. We have too many resources in which to draw on to settle for a mediocre education.