By Carissa Dessin
STAFF WRITER
The nation is buzzing about a new course presented by the College Board that is currently being piloted in some schools, AP African American Studies.
This new course presents the opportunity for students to learn about the deep history of the African American people, which is often skimmed over during US History classes. It is not the fault of the curriculum of US History, but it is simply because of the lack of time during the school year.
Many members of the history department have expressed interest in AP African American Studies, even to the point where history teacher Fred Hopkins “would probably like to take it,” himself. The implementation of this course would be a great opportunity for “teachers and students to explore issues regarding both race and also important demographics in the United States in a much deeper way than the current US History class allows for,” history teacher Kathryn Reusch said.
Secretary of Education for Massachusetts Patrick Tutwiler showed immense support for the new class, saying, “Any opportunity to engage in a deeper exploration of a people’s history and culture is beneficial.” History teacher Matthew Bach provided another benefit of this new course: “academic freedom” and “an additional choice for students.”
In January 2023, the New York Times reported that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had banned this course’s curriculum from being taught. It would not be unreasonable to believe that some other people could have the same opinion as him. While it is difficult to predict people’s reactions, there is bound to be at least one person that is uncomfortable with acknowledging the mistakes of America’s past. “As teachers and as a school, it’s our job to explore issues that make us uncomfortable,” said Reusch.
Hopkins had some good advice for people that would be against this new course: if anyone “doesn’t want African American Studies to be offered, then they probably shouldn’t take it.”
Though there may be some naysayers in this whole ordeal, Tutwiler believes that “this [course] will be well received.” He thinks “the introduction of an opportunity to dive deeper into the exploration of a people’s history and culture is a good thing,” and he “applaud[s] the College Board for introducing this new class.”
History department head Gregory Hurley does have “some concerns about what [he has] seen the College Board do in terms of how they’ve changed the class,” referring to the topics that have been cut from the curriculum in order to please DeSantis. In response to the course topic itself, Hurley feels that could be “good for raising the voices of some of our more underrepresented populations in this town who may not always feel seen or heard in the curriculum.”
Most of the opposition for the course comes from the uncomfortable feeling of showing America’s mistakes. “There are people who don’t want anything about American history to be taught if it’s critical to America,” said Hopkins. He followed up by saying, “You can’t examine a topic accurately if you’re not critical of it.”
As for this course’s implementation at AHS, it lies in the hands of the people. “If we hear from enough people that it is something we want to pursue then we could look at it as a group of administrators, teachers, students, and community members to see if it’s right for our school,” said Hurley.
