Building Pride Every Day : It’s Black History Month All Year Long as 1st-Graders Learn About Their Heritage

Every month is Black History Month in Michael Boyd’s classroom.

Although black studies in many schools gain prominence only in February--Black History Month--the subject takes center stage year-round in Room 14 at Inglewood’s Warren Lane Elementary School, where Boyd teaches first grade.

“Because it’s Black History Month, many think its time to pull out Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks again,” said Boyd, 44. “I want to go past Rosa Parks and involve much more.”

To be sure, Warren Lane Elementary--like other schools across the country--marks Black History Month with special programs. This year, for instance, kindergarten students will perform a skit on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

But Boyd continually uses African-American arts and history as a fulcrum to help his students learn. He thinks that the best way to bolster his students’ self-confidence is to incorporate their heritage into everything he teaches.

“I try to start with things relating to their heritage and widen to include people of other cultures,” said Boyd, a Southern California native of Irish descent. “The more they know about themselves and their heritage, the more they have to be proud about.”

For example, since the beginning of the school year, Boyd’s 32 students--all of whom are African-American--have been studying the evolution and migration of jazz music in addition to the standard curriculum. Using jazz, which he chose because of its African-American roots, Boyd is teaching the children the geography of the central and Southern states.

“Where’s Louis Armstrong from?” he asked the excited group of youngsters seated on the floor in the middle of the classroom. Hands went up, and he scanned the group for the answer.

“New Orleans,” blurted a handful of children, eager to be called on.

“And where is New Orleans?” he asked.

After selecting a student to point out the city on a multicolored map of the United States, Boyd traced the Mississippi River north while the children named the states along the way. In Illinois, Boyd quizzed the students on Chicago jazz musicians before detouring on the Missouri River to the Kansas City jazz hub.

The students, ranging in age from 6 to 8, identified songs including “Take the ‘A’ Train,” by Duke Ellington and “Any Other Fool,” by Patti Austin, as Boyd played cassette recordings of them. They also called out the names of Cab Calloway, Count Basie and Jelly Roll Morton as their teacher flashed photographs of these and other music greats.

Six-year-old Ahmad Miner said Fats Waller is his favorite jazz musician, and 8-year-old Jova King said his favorite song is Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher.”

School Principal Louis Thomas said the first-graders’ knowledge of music “floored” him when he first visited the classroom.

“I’m a former music teacher, and they asked me to play specific songs, (like) ‘Take the “A” Train,’ ” he said.

In addition to black musicians, Boyd has mosaicked magazine pictures of black executives, literary figures, inventors and doctors on the mint-green walls of his classroom.

On one wall, a short biography of Carmen Hudson, a Chicago obstetrician, is taped next to a photograph of Alexa Canady, the first black female neurosurgeon in the country.

“I throw a lot of doctors at them” to give them strong role models, Boyd said.

While studying the evolution of jazz along the Mississippi, he asked for names of colleges in the nearby states.

“What college in is Atlanta, Ga.?” he asked the group.

“Morehouse,” they chimed in unison.

“And who went to Morehouse College?” he asked.

“Dr. Martin Luther King,” said the chorus.

Boyd takes his first-graders to college fairs and gathers information from colleges around the country to give his students an academic goal.

“It gives them motivation. If I can get them hooked on the idea of college now, it will give them a tangible thing to relate to,” he said.

Although Boyd knows that the students will probably forget much of what he has taught them, his aim is to expose them to a wide range of material in hopes they will learn it more readily when they encounter it in the future.

His primary goal, he says, is to teach them how to read.

During his 19 years of teaching, Boyd said, he “got tired of seeing kids in the sixth and seventh grade who couldn’t read.” So when he began teaching first grade, he figured this was his chance to “put up or shut up.”

He predicts that every student in his class will know how to read by the end of the school year. Meanwhile, by exposing his students to the literature, arts and history of African-Americans and other groups, Boyd hopes to open more doors for his students.

“This is a critical age,” he said. “There is a lot you can teach first-graders. They are more open to it.”

And what’s next on the musical/geographic journey?

Reggae and Jamaica, Boyd says.