We thought we could petition to change the curriculum or text books that teachers use throughout the state. Instead, we learned that teachers can use any materials relevant to the state standards in their area of teaching. In Social Sciences, these state standards are reviewed every 7 years.

We recognized that if we want more content and accuracy in the curriculum, other groups surely do too. That was confirmed by our research. There are many groups that would like more attention to their ethnic or religious group in the curriculum. Consider a more universal approach to curriculum change.

Writing new state standards takes time. For example, the Ethnic Studies standards that were recently adopted took 1-1.5 years to write, and then the draft was shared with the public. At that point, ethnic groups were able to critique the standards and work with the committee to adjust the language so it would be more sensitive to their cultures.

Once teachers have the standards, they can use any materials they want to meet those aspects of the curriculum. So one way to provide more culturally sensitive information is to offer open-source materials to Social Studies teachers to use as they build their curriculum.

Students can have a voice in curriculum change. Senate Bill 664, requiring school districts to provide instruction about Holocaust and genocide, was started by students. Lots of students came to testify from different school districts. Senators were moved by what students were saying.

If students want to bring more cultural awareness to their schools, there may be other ways besides through the actual curriculum. Students can offer a presentation about their culture/religion at a school assembly, join or create a club based on their cultural or religious group, get involved with a “culture night” at their school to represent their cultural group, write articles for the school newspaper, or get to know the faculty or counselors at your school and offer to be a representative of your culture.