US schools embrace Asian-American history in new curriculum
Connecticut schools are enriching lessons with Asian-American stories amid rising anti-Asian sentiment.
They will also hear about Sadao Munemori, a soldier who died protecting comrades from a grenade. The 22-year-old posthumously became the first Japanese-American awarded the Medal of Honour.
Lessons like this that delve beyond places have left teachers “humbled”, said Jessica Blitzer, the district’s social studies department supervisor who helped design curriculum for secondary grade levels.
“It’s one of those moments where you think, ‘How have we not been doing that?’ These are moments where you realise this is really important, particularly given the population that we have in West Hartford, which is incredibly diverse in many ways,” Blitzer said.
Three years after Connecticut became the third state to require Asian-American and Pacific Islander history in kindergarten to grade 12 education, a developed curriculum is being put into motion.
For now, instruction is being rolled out in every grade except fourth and fifth. Most of the district’s 9,300 students will have lessons integrated year round. It will not be “the heritage month approach,” Blitzer said.
