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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
QOTD-Monday
Do you know any black history? Do you think that other races should get a month? I believe it just black and hispanics.
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Re: QOTD-Monday
I don't think that every race needs their own special month as long as all of our histories are taught and remembered.
I know what I was taught in school plus anything extra that I found particularly interesting and researched further on my own.
I don't necessarily think any races should have a "history" month. I think there are too many Americans who don't know enough about US history and/or world history as a whole to focus on individual months. I realize others may not agree.
I do. I was a history major and while I didn't take a course on that specifically, it was part of most of my American history courses.
As for the second part of your question, I think that's a dangerous one to answer, because I think it can easily sound like you are saying which races are better/more important than other races. Do we really want to say (for example) blacks and hispanics are important enough to get their own history month, but Asians don't matter as much?
I have a minor in history, and one of the classes I took was African history, so I think I do have a good knowledge base of African-American history, as well as slave trade up through the 19th century.
I'm not a fan of history months for any race, nation, religion, etc. I think they all should be taught equally.
I know plenty of American history which of course includes information about MLK, Civil Rights, etc.
I don't believe any race should have their own month. To only have some and not all seems to be making a statement about the importance of one over another and to me that seems unfair.
I know what I was taught in school.
I think the idea of having a month set aside takes away from an integrated curriculum. The civil rights movement was an important part of American History, and I think it should be taught as such, without a mandated month.
I was taught black history in school as part of the regular history curriculum...not just during black history month.
I think it's very important to have history months that celebrate and remember the struggles, achievements and contributions other races and cultures have added to the melting pot that is America. Native Americans and Asian/Pacific Islanders also have a heritage month named after them...not just blacks and hispanics. I'm not sure about any others, but again I'm fine with it and actually think it's a good thing.
I completely agree with the above statement. There are so many kids out there today that don't know American history (including the Challenger) and it's sad. We need to not have specific months for certain races and have it all part of American history.
Based on a lot of the responses...am I missing something? Are we discussing teaching curricula in schools or are we talking about declaring a heritage month for a subset of the population by the country as a whole...
And if we're talking the former, are schools not allowed to teach anything non-black history related in February?
I know what I learned in school.
I don't think we need a specific month and I think it's a bit unfair that we single out just a few race/religions/ethnicities/etc since America is such a melting pot now, I think it should all be taught throughout the year as part of American history.
I'm still confused. Is declaring a "history month" including legislation about what has to be taught or not taught in schools and when?
I do agree with the melting pot and not singling out religions...especially in public schools. Creationism shouldn't be taught there in my opinion.
I think the perception (and I think it's a mostly true perception) is that black history month has its major bit of influence in the classroom. You always have your tv movies and specials in various media, but it tends to be a mostly educationally focused month. There's no legislation, per se (sp?) about having to teach it during the month of February, but because its black history month, that's when civil rights, MLK, ect ect ect, gets taught, rather than having it integrated into the rest of the curriculum throughout the year. It's convenient, so that's when schools take the time to teach it, and then (in my experience), it tends to get ignored the rest of the year. Same with Latin-american history, and Asian-american history is lucky if it gets taught at all, especially in regards to WWII.
I still don't see why declaring a heritage history month is a bad thing. If this is the argument against it, then that should be taken up with your district's schools and their curricula.
I may be coming from a very different perspective. I see it as bringing awareness to a very sensitive and recent subject of American history.
My company put this out and it doesn't make me feel excluded in the slightest. How is this a bad thing?:
As you may have seen in last week?s xx, February is Black History Month (BHM) and the firm has put together numerous events that celebrate the achievements and unique contributions of African-American individuals throughout the history of our nation and our company.
During the coming weeks, xx, our African-American employee network, will be hosting a number of special events and programs, including panel discussions, professional development seminars and volunteering opportunities, to commemorate the spirit and significance of BHM. Please visit the Black History Month page to view the event listings for your market. We hope you take advantage of these events; they were created to help and empower employees with new ideas and resources.
Please also consider joining xx or one of the many other employee networking groups that help employees connect with and support each other.
I didn't mean it to sound like I thought it was an exclusion thing at all, and I think it is incredibly important to commemorate the civil rights movement and the many achievements and contributions that African Americans have made to this country. I think we are both coming from different perspectives. My background is in education, so my take on the entire thing comes from that perspective. To be honest, I didn't even realize that Black History Month was celebrated outside the educational realm, other than with the occasional History channel or PBS special.
Learn something new every day, I suppose.
Thanks for discussing it, Rai.
And to clarify, I wasn't necessarily saying you specifically may have felt it to be exclusionary. I think I was responding to those that commented on a heritage month being used to claim one race/culture may or may not be more important than others.
I think it's critical to celebrate, not just teach, different cultures and their impact on our world, past and present. It almost makes me sad that there would need to be a "month"... kind of like the Valentine's day argument... Shouldn't we celebrate/appreciate each other on a regular basis, not just when the calendar says it's time to do so? Madisen, I think that's awesome that your company has events etc.
My biggest beef with the months (..because there ARE others) is that black history month is the only one that anyone does anything about. The Dept of Ed has suggested curriculum for BHM but not greek history month, for example. I think that black history is obviously much more significant in the shaping of this country and has a lot more substance do discuss.. but I think it's a shame that kids aren't taught more about the others, even in passing.
This is a big part of my concern with celebrating specific months. I feel as though inside and outside of the educational system, BHM receives far more attention than other ethnicities/races/heritages, etc. This is a country that is made up of so many diverse individuals and we don't celebrate all of them in the same way. As Jen said, what about Greek heritage month? Is there an Irish heritage month? German? I'm Hispanic and I didn't even know when the Hispanic heritage month was. I had to look it up. I did know when BHM is though because there is so much focus on it. Maybe part of the problem is that these other groups don't fight hard enough for recognition. I don't really know what the solution is but I definitely think there are positives and negatives to celebrating history in this way.
ETA: I apologize if this sounds a bit like a rant. I've had way too much coffee today...
Yep, there are Irish and German months as well. I feel the same about this situation as I do about Breast Cancer research -- it's actually OVER funded, and while there plenty of other cancer awareness months, ironically no one is aware of them. But that's not the breast cancer activists' fault, nor should it discredit their efforts. I just wish someone would step up and do the same for other cancers.................... and cultures.
Sorry. I fail at staying on topic.
You read my mind.
Out of general interest, does your company put out a notice like this for other heritage months or just BHM? While it doesn't make you feel excluded, I could see it making others within your organization feel that way if their history is not celebrated with the same exuberance.
I completely agree with you, Jen.
I've got my own example too, if people aren't aware May is National Zombie Awareness Month, I say the zombies are to blame for not promoting it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commemorative_months
This made me snort
Yes, they do. I know they did something similar for Hispanic Heritage month and they put something out for Chinese New Year as well. This month is also Heart Health Month which I'm aware of thanks to what my company puts out. I'm sure they haven't put something out for everything on the wiki list I posted, but I feel they do a pretty good job of responding to employees' concerns about what's important to them/us.
That's awesome. I'm not surprised but figured it was worth asking.