Loch Raven Technical Academy teacher Michelle Dressel discusses the African American experience with students at the school.

With state and local education and cultural leaders looking on, Loch Raven Technical Academy social studies teacher

Michelle Dressel had every reason to be a bit excited. When she began her lesson – a sample of a new state curriculum focusing on the African American experience – she was clearly on solid ground.

Hands flew up from eighth-graders eager to answer her questions. Energized students began to ponder the hardships of life for slaves in America in the mid-1800s. And despite the presence of television cameras and dignitaries, the class quickly immersed itself in the new curriculum, pressing to learn more.

Students at Loch Raven Technical Academy examine materials and read texts that are part of the new statewide African American journey curriculum that was unveiled at the school on Nov. 28.

“They responded beautifully,” Ms. Dressel said later. “They became really interested in what was being discussed and its importance in the life of the nation.”

The sample lesson provided the backdrop for a formal debut of the new African American Journey K-8 curriculum now being incorporated into schools throughout Baltimore County and Maryland.

The curriculum, developed through a partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, is the first and only of its kind in the nation; no other museum in the country is complemented by a statewide curriculum.

Among the celebrations during the Nov. 28 unveiling of the new African American journey curriculum was the presentation of a check for $100,000 from Wachovia Bank to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, which worked with the Maryland State Department of Education to help develop the curriculum. From left, those pictured are: State Superintendent Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick, businessman and museum supporter Lou Grasmick, George L. Russell, Jr., Esq., chair of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum’s Board of Directors; Wachovia Bank President Jim Themides; and Carolyn E. Fugett, mother of the late Reginald F. Lewis.

With a $100,000 gift from Wachovia Bank presented by Jim Themides during the Nov. 28 premiere of the curriculum at Loch Raven, state and museum officials plan to extend the curriculum to high school students as well.

Teaching from the lesson “Paths to Freedom,” Dressel engaged her students in investigating the ways it was possible for African Americans to gain their freedom in the years between 1790 and 1850. Students used primary source documents such as household inventories, slave testimony, and slave auction advertisements, and they considered the risks and rewards of the limited options available to African Americans of that era.

Teacher Michelle Dressel addresses themes contained in a new curriculum that examines the African American journey in U.S. history and culture.

BCPS staff, along with staff members from other school systems throughout the state, played critical roles in helping to write, pilot, and critique the curriculum. The instruction has been aligned with Maryland’s voluntary curriculum and will be shared with reading and language arts, social studies, and fine arts teachers throughout Maryland.

Dr. Barbara Dezmon, Assistant to the Superintendent for Equity and Assurance (left), and Loch Raven Technical Academy Teacher Michelle Dressel (right) talk with students about to embark on the first sample lesson of a new African-American curriculum debuted by state and local officials on Monday, Nov. 28.

 

Among those in attendance for the Nov. 28 premiere of the program were State Superintendent Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick; Baltimore County Superintendent Dr. Joe A. Hairston; George L. Russell, Jr., Esq., chair of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum’s Board of Directors; Carolyn E. Fugett, mother of the late Reginald F. Lewis; and Dr. Charles Christian, chair of the Education Task Force that created the curriculum and a professor of social geography at University of Maryland.

Students at Loch Raven Technical Academy examine materials and read texts that are part of the new statewide African American journey curriculum that was unveiled at the school on Nov. 28.

 

Story and Photos by Charles Herndon, Communications Specialist