The Southern Poverty Law Center recently published a study, "Teaching the Movement: The State of Civil Rights Education in the United States 2011," which found that the United States education system is severely lacking in teaching basic civil rights to students.
The study examined the high school educational standards of each state and compared each of these standards to what is generally accepted as core knowledge of the historic civil rights movement. A score was then calculated for each state. The scores are a percentage of the accepted core knowledge that is covered by the standard. Thus, a score of 25 percent indicates that a state requires its schools to teach only 25 percent of what is commonly viewed as core knowledge. In this study, no state scored higher than a 70 percent, 16 states scored 0 percent and the average score across all states was a 19 percent, indicating that the United States is largely neglectful when it comes to teaching basic knowledge of the civil-rights movement. Given this finding, it is no longer shocking that, of the 12,000 seniors surveyed in the study, only 2 percent could answer a simple question about the famous Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling that was crucial in the desegregation of public schools.
The state of Illinois was rated fifth-highest in the report, with a score of 54 percent. ( Alabama, New York, Florida and Georgia topped Illinois. ) The study reports that while Illinois does well in its education of the leaders, groups and events of the movement, it does poorly in its discussion of the resistance or struggles faced by the movement and the tactics used by the movement to overcome such difficulties. Illinois also does well in its education of other civil-rights movements; however, it apparently stumbles when it comes to current events or civics issues.
In the report, Maureen Costello, the teaching tolerance director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, notes, "the [ states ] who say 'we'll look at other groups' ... mention other ethnic groups."
The National Center for History in the Schools has proposed a standard that would require that "the struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil liberties" be taught in the classroom. However, this standard was never accepted into law. As the New York Times reported, the California senate recently passed a bill that would require the achievements of gay and lesbian individuals to be taught in high school social-studies courses. However, some strongly oppose the measure.
According to the National History Education Clearinghouse, Michigan, New Jersey, and Vermont mention gay rights in the state history standards. However, the Vermont standard mentions gay rights as an example but does not require that it actually be taught.
The Illinois Learning Standards set by the Illinois State Board of Education require that, as part of their social/emotional learning, high school students "evaluate how expressing more positive attitudes influences others" and "demonstrate ways to express empathy for others." The standards also require that students "evaluate strategies for being respectful of others and opposing stereotyping and prejudice" and "evaluate how advocacy for the rights of others contributes to the common good." However, these standards never explicitly mention gay rights and are not required to be evaluated in any way.
Why are we failing to teach our children about the rights of gay and LGBT individuals? Costello believes that "LGBT rights as a civil right is seen as debatable." It may also be that, as Costello theorizes, " [ teachers ] are afraid that parents might accuse them of a gay agenda." If we wish to change this lack of education, Costello feels that "activists have to start putting pressure on the legislatures [ and ] make sure publishers include information that is accurate [ and that ] teachers are comfortable."
