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THE RESEARCH COMMISSION REPORT
The Education Commission Report:
A Proposed Education Agenda
ASA G. HILLIARD, III
The agenda of African Americans and other people of African descent worldwide is a matter of urgent concern in 1985. However, not all observers agree on the nature of this educational concern. Most often the education problem is seen as a problem of access to whatever is offered routinely in public schools to the masses of the people. Yet such scholars as W.E.B. DuBois (Education of the Negro), Carter G. Woodson (The Miseducation of the Negro, Charles Hamilton (Race and Education) and Yosef ben-Jochannan (Cultural Genocide in the Black and African Studies Curriculum), have placed the problem in a much broader perspective. Collectively, they have voiced the need for an independent, African centered antidote to centuries of miseducation. While the latter conception of the problem may be preferable to the former, few attempts have been made to design an appropriate education offering that is comprehensive and that is based upon the most recent and most complete material that is available about classical African civilizations.
One key facet of the design of an appropriate approach to African and African Diaspora education is to insure that the new muti-disciplinary scholarship that is revealing the truth about the Motherland is widely shared with all African people. In addition these new truths must be spread so as to influence the teaching of history in general. This is a problem of great magnitude because of the duration and intensity of systematic miseducation practices. Any effort to transform the miseducation process and to educate our people appropriately will require many important steps. At first glance the list of proposed agenda activities that follows suggests that a small group with limited resource faces an overwhelming task. Yet we have already accomplished much. We must mobilize all available resources to begin the urgent work as soon as possible. A judicious development of priorities and a careful recruitment of dependable works can enable us to make significant progress, even against the odds.
Given the extensiveness and importance of existing history of Africa's classical civilizations, the following agenda is proposed:
1. Develop content outline
2. Identify a selected list of Great Books about Ancient Africa
3. Audio and audio-visual media development
4. Develop a classified annotated recommended bibliography
5. Develop training opportunities for new scholars
6. Develop criteria for the identification of trained teachers for classical African civilization
7. Develop programs for the education of the general public
8. Develop recommended program for the education of public and private school students
9. Develop and dispense a list of bookstores that stock important materials on classical African civilizations
10. Stimulate the organization of local conferences on classical African civilizations
11. Develop at least one institution of higher education program for doctoral study and research in the history of classical African civilizations
12. Develop a Journal of classical African civilizations
13. Develop a museum of classical African civilizations
14. Initiate an endowment fund for the study of classical African civilizations.
Each of the above activities will now be described briefly.
1. Develop a Content Outline
Abundant materials exist describing different civilizations in Africa. What is needed is a carefully developed comprehensive outline of the history of African civilizations. Such an outline would serve as a conceptual map of the domain of classical African civilizations and as a guide for researchers, curriculum developers, teachers and students. It should be developed so that chronological and other relationships among the classical civilizations could be seen at a glance. Such an outline should be developed by a committee made up of appropriate experts from within our association and of carefully selected experts outside the association as needed.
2. Identify a Selected List of The Great Books about Classical African Civilization
As a service to the students ASCAC should select and publish a list of what we consider to be the greatest books about classical African civilization. This list should then be disseminated to libraries, study groups, and especially to African American Organizations that have educational programs. A committee should be appointed by ASCAC to identify these books. The references should be annotated. If possible, several bookstores should be persuaded to stock the Great Books as a set.
3. Audio and Audio-Visual Media Development
The Audio and Visual media in America and throughout the world are pervasive. The assassination of African-American images through the mass media is well known and needs no documentation. It is not enough to decry the presence of such attacks on the black image. It is certainly wrong to be satisfied with small cosmetic changes in media images such as those presently under way in national television programming. What is required that affirmative steps be taken to project the, images that accurately reflect the history of African people especially in its classical manifestation.
4. Develop a Classified Annotated Recommended Bibliography
Many lectures, television productions, magazine articles and even books on classical African civilization have been made available to general audiences. Often if a presentation is particularly well done, it stimulates the desire among audiences for more extensive and detailed information. it is important that the resources of the Association be utilized in the development of a short representative bibliography classified according to topics and with annotations. This annotated bibliography can be recommended to those who seek additional information. Such a bibliography need not be unduly lengthy but should contain the most important sources on the history of classical African civilizations.
5. Develop Training Opportunities for New Scholars
Our education program must be forward looking. To that end, the appropriate training of new scholars to carry forward the work that has already been completed is very important. Opportunities for apprenticeships must be developed. Moreover institutions that are particularly well suited for offering advanced training classical African civilization should be identified and advertised. While all African-American Studies programs include some material on classical African civilization, it is to our advantage to identify a few exemplary programs which should serve as the primary training ground for future scholars.
6. Develop Criteria for the Identification of Trained Teachers for Classical African Civilization
As materials have been developed on classical African civilizations, the number of 'teachers" has proliferated dramatically. On the one hand this is a good thing. On the other hand, there is likely to be some need at a point in the future, if not now, to spell out the criteria which may be applied in order to determine the competence of teachers in this area.
7. Develop Programs for the Education of the General Public
Much of the new information on classical African civilization remains in the possession of the serious students of the subject and a few members of the general public who are in a position to receive the small amount of information that is being disseminated. Ultimately the value of the information will be tied directly to it's wide dissemination to the African-American family, in particular and to the world in general. As a result, aggressive steps must be taken to disseminate the basic information on classical African civilizations to the general public.
8. Develop a Recommended Program for the Education of Public and Private School Students
A few public schools have begun to toy with the idea of including African-American history content into the public school curriculum. Most of these efforts are unguided or in some cases, misguided. It is important that guidance be provided by those most capable of providing ft. As a result recommendations for the general kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum should be made by the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations.
At least one model for such content inclusions has been developed in Portland, Oregon over the past six years. There a curriculum guide in Mathematics, Science, Language Arts, Music, Art and Social Studies has been developed. These guides include time in each academic area broken down by major geo-cultural groups, including the African American. In addition, major concepts in each of the academic subject areas are identified according to the ethnic group of origin in a chart specifically designed for that purpose. In addition to all of this *base line* essays (mini textbooks) have been written as back up for the curriculum guide. Every teacher, no matter what grade level, is expected to be trained on the base line essays so that they may use those essays as background for the use of the curriculum guide.
Such elaborate effort may be difficult to mount for all school systems and in all subject areas; however, some approach similar to that in Portland is desirable for school districts throughout the nation.
9. Develop and Disseminate a List of African-American Bookstores That Stock Important Materials on Classical African Civilization
Many individuals are unaware of the existence of African-American bookstores even when they are located in their own home towns. It is also true that few African-American bookstores stock the wide variety of materials that would support the study of classical African civilization necessitating contact with many such stores that may stock references important to the study of classical African civilizations. It is important that such information be collected and disseminated through the Association in order to facilitate the work of serious researchers as well as casual readers. These bookstores should be provided with our bibliographies.
10. Stimulate the Organization of Local Conferences on Classical African Civilizations
The National Conferences on classical African Civilizations have been resounding successes. Unfortunately, many individuals have been unable to attend yet they need and desire the kind of experience that heretofore has been available only at the National level. As ASCAC expands and develops local affiliates, it is important that high on the agenda of the local affiliates be the conduct of local conferences patterned after the National conference in order to bring the materials which are available to the attention of the widest possible audience.
11. Develop at Least One Institution of Higher Education Where a Comprehensive Program for Doctoral Study and Research in the History of Classical African Civilizations is Offered
Such an institution must be capable of supporting the multi. disciplinary effort that the study of classical African civilization requires.
12. Develop a Journal of Classical African Civilization
This journal is already being developed. It was the intent of the founders and the membership of the Association for Classical African Civilizations, to do this from the very beginning. The point is only made here in support of that early decision.
13. Development of a Museum of Classical African Civilization
Anyone who has visited such museums as the British Museum or the Cairo Museum is well aware of the serious errors and deficiencies in the portrayal of classical African civilization in Egypt as well as in other parts of the continent. In some cases, such as in the British Museum, displays are not even organized in chronological order. In other cases, such as in the Cairo Museum, important materials from classical African antiquity are not cataloged or labeled, even when on display. In other cases, important materials are not even displayed. At present they are warehoused in the basement of storage facilities gathering dust. It is important that at least one museum of classical African civilization be established in order that a comprehensive picture of Africans can be presented to the world, and that picture can be legitimated by primary source material.
14. Endowment for the Study of Classical African Civilizations
Resources must be developed to underwrite the development of new scholarship and dissemination activities in the area of classical African civilization. Toward the end, fund raising activities are necessary. Even though it may take some time to accumulate the necessary resources, it is important to begin the process of collecting funds and to establish in the mind of African people the responsibility that each of us has for the support that is necessary to develop and sustain ancient African heritage.
Conclusion
At this point in the development of the Association, it is clear that it will be difficult to implement fully each of the items listed on the agenda above. It should also be clear that there be many other items which should be a part of the agenda, adding to the load of activity for the membership. However, in spite of that fact that complete coverage in all areas may not be possible immediately, it is important that we have a conception of the scope and depth of activities which are necessary in order to support the work of the association through an educational agenda.
It should be clear from this agenda that there is a major role that can be played for every member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization. Activities must not be limited to the national level. There is a major value that can be achieved by the inclusion of a broad base of membership in the development of and implementation of an educational agenda. Surely a stronger commitment to the organization and to its goal will flow from such involvement.
Nothing is more important than an independent reconceptualization of the place of African people in the world. Activist educators are a crucial ingredient in the struggle. It will be from this base that other aspects of the urgent movement to strengthen peoplehood will be built.
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