Defining "Civil Rights" for Curriculum Purposes
Justin Bathon on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 4:48PM Mississippi is looking like they will make "civil rights" an essential part of the curriculum from kindergarten to 12th grade. The civil rights curriculum will be a part of the social studies course, but will be independently tested.
This is a good idea, but "civil rights" should be defined broadly. Civil rights certainly means the struggles of the African American movement and that should be an essential part of any curriculum, but civil rights also means lots more. Bottom line, civil rights refers to the interaction of the individual with the state. And, as such, civil rights refers to individual freedoms, restrictions, agreements, arguments and how the government incorporates all of these into policy that impact the everyday reality of Americans, and/or, the good folks from Mississippi.
In short, the proponents of civil rights education in Mississippi are really on a very close page to the proponents of civics education, like Justices O'Connor and Souter. These movements could team up to spread the idea of civics and civil rights more prominently around the country.
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