Celebrating Black History Month through Engagement and Education
As we get older, we tend to gradually see our parents more as full human beings, with all the flaws, challenges, and glories that being a fully-realized human entails. If we’re fortunate, this fuller understanding leads to a more empathetic feeling towards them, and towards ourselves. Understanding their history helps us to understand ourselves.
Similarly, the purpose and result of a thorough and rigorous education is not to promote, as some worry, any one student or group of students feeling badly about who they are, but rather to fully understand our history and expand our understanding of where we are today, and how we got here.
Frederick Douglass was quoted in David Blight’s magnificent book Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom as saying “Perhaps there is too much past. But remember that all present rests on all the past. Remember is as good a word as forget.”
The goal of education is to provide the tools and context for each student to learn what they need to think critically, act justly, and pursue their own path and purpose to the best of their ability.
It is in the spirit of robust inquiry, and engagement, that the Judges in the Classroom program matches judges with teachers who would like them to deliver a vetted lesson plan to their students. This piece is a supplement to the lesson plan called Housing Law.
Essential Questions
What are some of the main issues addressed by housing laws?
What are the specific laws governing housing-related issues?
What are some of a property owner’s rights and protections?
What are some of a tenant’s rights and protections?
Where will housing-related issues be heard?
Where can people with housing law-related questions go for help?
Civics knowledge, skills and dispositions
Effective civic engagement starts with having learned the basics of our government’s organization and founding principles. Added to that knowledge must be the development of core civics skills such as critical thinking, problem analysis, and the ability to argue effectively from evidence. With that foundational knowledge and skill set, and the core civic dispositions, or habits of mind, of learning, participating and serving, respect for the rights of others, and respect for the law, students will deepen their sense of agency and “voice,” in their schools, communities and government.
The reference staff at the Washington State Law Library has written about Black History Month. In a two part series they explore the history of the fight for reparations by Black Americans and provide resources for further research.
