February was a month of activities, assignments and trivia connected to Black history for many students in Aiken County public schools.
Here are two local educators who are inspiring students to learn more about African American history.
One way to spark interest in history is to include people who are making history today, according to Jasmine Scott, assistant principal of Schofield Middle School.
This is Scott’s second year as an assistant principal at Schofield. Last year, she led efforts to provide Black History Month activities at the school, setting the standard for this year’s celebration.
Displays and decorated doors in the halls of Schofield featured both historical heroes and current public figures as part of the school’s Black History Month activities. One classroom door, for example, profiles African American viral immunologist Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, who played a key role in developing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
“The biggest piece is relevance,” Scott said. “Middle schoolers still have the energy and eagerness of elementary students, with the mindset of a high schoolers. It’s an interesting combination, but once you get their attention, they’re there. They’re with you. So what we do, especially during Black History Month, we want to make sure that when we’re presenting information to our students, that it’s relevant to their time.”
The COVID-19 pandemic meant some activities had to be adjusted. However, students still took part in decorating doors and making educational videos.
In 2020, fine arts students hosted a living museum, bringing to life people who played a part in African American history. Scott said one student portrayed basketball player Kobe Bryant.
“Oftentimes, you talk about Martin Luther King, you talk about Malcolm X, you talk about Harriet Tubman. And those are very pivotal portions of African American history, but what about LeBron James? What about Soledad O’Brien? What about Beyoncé?” Scott said. ”…It’s important that you not only focus on the history from centuries ago, but you focus on the history that is being written today, especially with middle schoolers.”
Black History Month is not the only educational month celebrated at Schofield. Scott said the school spent the last week of February emphasizing Black women in history as a way to transition toward Women’s History Month in March.
Schofield Middle’s goal for Black History Month this year was to tie into the school’s current mission: cultivating global perspectives, said Scott.
“Some people may hear ‘Black history’ or ‘African American history,’ and they think that it’s different or disconnected from world history or American history – when really, it’s just an integral part of a more global approach to our world’s history,” Scott said.
Scott said she hopes Schofield Middle’s activities will spark an interest in history for the students, as well as inspire them.
Year-round education
Students and teachers at Midland Valley High School have also been participating in Black History Month activities, including trivia, door decorating and a small college fair for historically Black colleges and universities.
But one faculty member has a class focused on African American history and culture year-round.
Bianca Woodard started teaching African American Studies in fall 2020. She submitted a proposal for the course in 2019, taking inspiration from a school in Charleston with a similar class.
This class isn’t Woodard’s first experience with incorporating Black history into lessons year-round. At Midland Valley High, she also teaches AP world history and AP human geography.
“I think, throughout the year, it (African American history) gives you a round look at the history of the country,” Woodard said. “I’ve always tried to incorporate elements of African American history, as well as Native American history and Latino American history … I just think it’s important to know pieces of everybody’s story, and not just look at it through one lens.”
In the process of researching and preparing to teach African American Studies, Woodard said she has been learning new things herself.
“You grow up in the South – I did – and you really just hear about people being on plantations. It’s heavy on the plantations,” Woodard said.
Some topics history classes sometimes miss, Woodard said, include different African American literary groups and movements, Black people in the American Revolution and the role of Black churches.
One thing Woodard hopes students take away from the African American Studies course is that history is not just about individual events or people, but the strings holding them together.
“History is not just isolated events,” Woodard said. “Because most of the time, when you think ‘Black history,’ and let’s just be honest, a lot of people think, ‘Martin Luther King. He marched. Rosa Parks sat down on the bus, and that’s what kicked everything off.’ But we don’t hear about everything that happened up until that moment, and how people have been fighting for freedom and for equal rights since the induction of this nation.”