Apartheid Out of the Curriculum???

[Matrix]

My Department, in their infinite wisdom, is voting to have the subject of apartheid removed from our curriculum because apparently, it's not important anymore.

Has anyone run into this? Does any one have any advice as how to approach them?

[Chocolate_New_Orleans]

ok, I'll bite, what the hell is apartheid?

[Chocolate_New_Orleans]

well, a quick google search gives me this...

Apartheid consisted of numerous laws that allowed the ruling white minority in South Africa to segregate, exploit and terrorize the vast majority: Africans, mostly, but also Asians and Coloureds - people of mixed race. In white-ruled South Africa, black people were denied basic human rights and political rights. Their labour was exploited, their lives segregated.

Under Apartheid, racist beliefs were enshrined in law and any criticism of the law was suppressed. Apartheid was racism made law. It was a system dictated in the minutest detail as to how and where the large black majority would live, work and die. This system of institutionalized racial discrimination defied the principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1976 the United Nations unanimously condemned the elevation of one of the "homelands", Transkei, into an independent State because it remained dependent on South Africa. Not one country in the world recognized the new State. In 1982, almost one million black South Africans were transferred to another country -- Swaziland -- without their having any say in the matter.

Ultimately, Blacks demonstrated, held strikes and rioted over such discriminatory practices. As a result diplomatic pressure mounted abroad for change. In 1990, Nelson Mandela, who had devoted his life to democracy, equality and learning for all South Africans, was released from prison after serving almost 30 years for those beliefs. He was elected president of the African National Congress the following year, and in 1993 received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to their country. On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa's first black President, in that country's first truly democratic election.



Obviously, not American. However, I'm not sure how your schools work over there, or how much freedom you have in teaching to your own preferences, but just incorporate it into your lessons?

I NEVER get to the Civil rights movement in US History. The kids survive.

[SunshineSkate]

I NEVER get to the Civil rights movement in US History. The kids survive.

I don't know about other any States, but in Florida by the time kids make it into middle school, most have already learned about the Civil Rights movement. As Martin Luther King Day approaches, most teachers where I work start teaching it. I would hope that no child would make it out of public school without being taught about that very significant portion of US History.

[Ol' Timer]

I retired about 5 years ago and now I watch over student teachers. Apartheid was a big topic in the 80's when it was rather relevant to U.S. interests. Now that it only happens (at least from what we see on TV and the newspapers) in 3rd world countries that geography experts have trouble locating without Google Earth, no one seems to care. So, it is pulled from most curriculum sets.

[Untamed Shrew]

Actually, I did end up teaching my students about apartheid, as our social studies curriculum in 7th grade is about Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

As none of my students were even born when Apartheid ended, they were completely ignorant of those events. They were also unaware of genocide that wasn't the Holacaust, and the UN reaction to Rwanda, for example. Once they started reading current events in Africa, they related to the events in Darfur.

Studying apartheid showed my students one side of the story about the legacy of colonialism, so it was worthwhile.