SPEAKER_01 0:23

It's important that before we teach our students about the slave trade, that we teach our students who the Africans were, how the Africans lived, and what the Africans contributed to America. Hi, my name is Miss Ayres. I am certified an elementary school teacher for 15 years here in the state of Virginia and a 20-year Navy war veteran. Welcome to my new classroom, Dr. King's class. I became an educational activist and started this podcast with just one mission, to add African contributions to the elementary social studies curriculum. In Dr. King's class, we infused African contributions during our students' Foundation of America lesson. When we introduce our students to the Greek culture and the Roman culture, in this class, we also introduce our students to the African culture, who the Africans were, how the Africans lived, and what the Africans contributed to America. I created this podcast because when I was in elementary school, my teacher infused African contributions into his lesson plan. And it made a difference in my life then because I decided to become an educator, and it made a difference in my life now as a public school teacher and now an educational activist. In 2004, after I completed 20 years in uniform, I returned to Virginia because I knew I was becoming a public school teacher. And as I was preparing for a social studies lesson, I was doing the research on the Greek culture and the Roman culture, and it was then that I realized African contributions had been omitted from the elementary social studies curriculum. I was disappointed because I know the importance of laying the foundation early in our students' elementary experience. During the foundation of our students' learning. So in 2020, when COVID closed down in-person learning in the public classroom, that was when I started preparing for a new type of classroom, Dr. King's class. And our mission is to petition the Board of Education, petition your local government official to add African contributions, to infuse African contributions into the elementary social studies curriculum. Because social studies is one curriculum that's routinely updated, depending on the needs of the parents and local community. Now this information is uncomfortable. People don't like to talk about the topic of race. And um this information is triggering because we're challenging the status quo. I am an educational activist because I remember when I first learned about the slave trade in elementary school. Um I remember the first time I saw a picture of a slave family in chains for sale. And in elementary school, that left a an impression on my brain. I after learning about the slave trade, I didn't want to identify as being black because I didn't think anything came from the black culture but the slave trade. Because in elementary school, that was my first introduction to someone that looked like me. I bec created the king's classroom because at the same time that I was ashamed of being black because of what I was being taught about the black culture. At the same time, my elementary school teacher was infusing African contributions in the lesson plan. Now, I later learned that African contributions wasn't a part of the curriculum, and my elementary school teacher put in the extra work to infuse African contributions. And that left such an impression on me that I later became a teacher. And I did the same thing. I infused African contributions into my curriculum whenever I can. And the outcome was so positive. The outcome was the same as when I was in elementary school. When I learned about the rich contributions of African Americans, I became more engaged. And as a teacher, I too infused African contributions into my classroom. Both black and white students became more engaged. I didn't have to tell the students to stop talking and paying attention. The students felt a connection with each other, with the with the content. The students, both black and white, felt the connection with the teachers. And speaking from experience, as an elementary school teacher, I know the importance of infusing this truth at an early age. When we introduce our students, I believe that's in second grade, but when we introduce our students to the Roman and the Greek culture, that is when we must introduce our students to the African culture. What the Africans contributed and how the Africans lived on that continent. Now, because that information has been purposely omitted from the school's curriculum, in particular elementary school curriculum, what I am going to introduce you guys to today, some people will feel uncomfortable because they will realize that we have been lied to in the classroom. Lied by omission. When we do not teach our students the rich culture of the African continent and the Africans, we are denying our students a big part of what they need to be successful. We are denying our students a part of history that must be taught in the classroom. We can't just teach our students about the slave trade. We have to teach our students who the Africans were before they were forced into slavery. And this information has been omitted purposely, but it's time to bring it back, or it's time to include it for the first time. And people are going to be very uncomfortable facing history.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Any any white person who was born, raised, and schooled in the United States of America, if you aren't a racist, you're a miracle. Either that or you decided to educate yourself. Because education in this country is about white is right, brown's alright, black's gotta stand back. Yellow's mellow. We educate in a way that says that white males have done all the adventures, have made all the adventures, have done all the discovery, have made all everything that is good and has been accomplished, has been accomplished according to social studies, which is actually antisocial studies, by white males. It's a lie. But we do that in order to maintain the myth of white superiority. The myth of race has to be maintained at all costs in this country. Because if white people have to give up the color of their skin as being something that makes them perfect, what do they have left? If we start teaching the truth about history, if we start teaching about Nile Valley contributions to civilization, it will totally change the way we conduct ourselves in the classroom. It will have to.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

They lied to you. Greece didn't invent philosophy, they stole it from Africa. Let's talk facts. Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, all the so-called fathers of philosophy. They spent years in Egypt learning from African scholars before they even had their own ideas. Pythagoras, 20 years in Egyptian temples studying math and science, then he slapped his name on it. Plato straight up wrote, Egypt has the most ancient traditions, their laws and knowledge are the foundation of civilization. And Herodotus, the father of history, admitted Egypt is the cradle of the arts, and the Greeks took their learning from there. So when they called Greece the birthplace of wisdom, remember the Greeks didn't create philosophy, they majored in Egypt and graduated in plagiarism.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

I can imagine, you go all around the world and smash up everything how the other civilizations built, loot what they built, pillage, steal, even steal their ideas and their concepts and their philosophy. And then you sit on top of this mountain of stolen goods and declare yourself to be rich because of your own merit. Imagine telling this lie to your children, to your own children, to your grandchildren, generation after generation. How do you think that's gonna go? You didn't invest in creating actual merit. You cheated, you lied, you stole, you brutalized, and then you tell your own people that everyone else in the world has nothing and you have everything because of how much better you are than everyone else. How long is that life sustainable? I mean, these are people who actually have civilizations, who actually created and built and accomplished and didn't just pillage and plunder. And there's still those people today, even though you have a president, they're still those same people, and you're still the way you are. I mean, a good example actually is African Americans. I don't know if you could think of a people uh who were more held back, more deprived, more sabotaged than African Americans. You took everything away from them, and took them away from everything. They started in your country uh at less than zero, literally regarded and treated as subhuman. I don't have to learn to read or write or anything for hundreds of years. But you see, they come from a people of accomplishment to one degree or another, not a people of piracy and fashion and appropriation. They come from a people uh who created and built and developed in their own countries, in their own land. And even though you did everything that you could possibly do to suppress them, to hold them down, to hold them back, and you're still doing that until today. Nevertheless, uh I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that African Americans have become a global cultural superpower. People like this, with a history like this, with a legacy like this, uh simply cannot be held back for any length of time by people who do not have a similar history, people who have have never actually invested uh in their own civilizational development.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

April 12, 1860, then Senator Jefferson Davis on the floor of the U.S. Senate, while arguing against a bill to fund black education in the nation's capital. He argued that a government was not founded by Negroes for Negroes, but founded by white men for white men. His speech was delivered 18 months before Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy. And 160 years later, that very sentiment is still present in public education, social studies curriculum. It exists in an educational system not designed for Negroes, and that perpetuates the inequality that Senator Davis was so proud of. Our current social studies curriculum is a racist curriculum where we learn about only white men making all the discoveries and creations and contributions to this great country. And until we start adding, infusing African contributions, we are teaching our students a lie, a lie by omission. Our current social studies curriculum is imbalanced. It is a man-made problem, and we can fix this problem. Parents, local communities, we can fix this problem at the grassroot level because social studies is one discipline that is routinely updated. But we can't make these changes with the same level of consciousness that created it. Or instead of trying to delete the truth, let's add the truth. Currently, because of the lie in the public education classroom, currently, black and white students think Greece developed without African contributions, and that's a lie, because each culture, Rome, Greece, and Africa had its period of greatness, of high achievements. American history is well documented, and it's not black history, it's not African history, it's American history. Even our great thinkers, Plato, Pythagoras, Herodotus, they all studied and admitted that they studied until Timbuktu in the libraries, they admitted that they learned from black scholars, black teachers taught Greeks and Romans. Before I dismiss the class, I am asking parents and local communities to be a part of this movement for change. Support Dr. King's classroom, where the curriculum is more balanced. The balanced curriculum by adding the missing piece. And that missing piece is African contribution. Everyone benefits when we tell the truth in the classroom. And the truth is Africa was a thriving civilization before the slave trade. And when we teach this truth, the students benefit. The teachers benefit, and this world benefit. And I'll leave you with one of Dr. Martin Luther King's quotes. Take the first step in faith. You do not have to see the whole staircase, but just take the first step. I'll see you next time. Class Dismissive.