A Metro Detroit journalist gets top-level attention after writing about why her younger son was "was stunned by the syllabus of his African-American history class at Groves High School in Birmingham."
Chastity Pratt Dawsey's essay at Bridge magazine last week described "the planned classroom topics the teacher listed to cover the past 50 years of African-American history: an R-rated fictional movie about gang banging, a documentary about gang banging and a reading on mass incarceration."
Supt. Mark Dziatczak: "We must insure that all voices are included." (Photo: Birmingham Public Schools)
Two days later, the district's leader sent a five-paragraph letter to parents "to express my deep disappointment," Dawsey reports in a follow-up.
The superintendent of Birmingham Public Schools apologized to parents last week, saying the district “failed” students with a black history class whose syllabus initially included the film "Boyz 'N the Hood."
Mark Dziatczak, who was hired in December as superintendent, wrote an email to district parents.
"I understand the frustration and the concerns expressed by the author," he says, adding:
"The district failed its obligation to provide an African American History course pilot that was both appropriate for our students and reflected the necessary input from our community. . . . Resources listed in the course pilot syllabus failed to meet the depth and breadth of African American history. The syllabus that was distributed to students in our African American History course pilot should never have reached our students' desks."
African American history is a new elective taught at Groves for its students and those from Seaholm, Birmingham's other public high school. The syllabus for the post-civil rights era listed "Inside the Bloods and Crips," a 2010 documentary on Los Angeles gangs, and a 2010 book by Michelle Alexander titled "The New Jim Crow / Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."
Chastity Pratt Dawsey: "Was this class being taken seriously?" (Photo: Facebook)
Dawsey, a native Detroiter who joined Bridge in December 2013 after 12 years as a Detroit Free Press reporter, posted last week:
Other topics such as school segregation, affirmative action and the rise of African-American political leadership were listed as readings for students to research on their own, seemingly minimizing their importance. . . .
I had to wonder: Was this class being taken seriously? Or was this an example of why less than a third of students in Michigan pass the state social studies test?
Nowhere were there planned classroom lessons on other seminal events of the past 50 years, from the fight over school busing and affirmative action to the rise of African-Americans as a political force ‒ those were merely optional research topics for students. . . . All I could think was, "What kind of miseducational nonsense is this?"
In his reaction, the suburban superintendent writes:
"After reading the article several times, . . . I regret that our actions and systems led to the desire for it to be written. . . .
"We must ensure that all voices are included and valued in the district’s continuous improvement process."
Dawsey, a Southfield resident, graduatred from Cass Tech High School ('91) and the University of Michigan ('95).
