Educators are working to shape a series of lessons on Asian American and Pacific Islander studies. As Connecticut is set to roll out curriculum mandated by a law passed last year, we’re taking a closer look at what that could look like.
“Asian is not a monolith. There are a lot of different backgrounds that come to it.”
AJ Lin is well aware of the unique identities that make up the Asian American Pacific Islander community. As a school librarian with Waterbury Public Schools, Lin is aware the role educators play in shaping the future AAPI curriculum to be mandated in Connecticut public schools.
“Educators should be the one who are helping out with this the most,” she said.
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She was one of several people at a symposium Wednesday in Hartford discussing how it should be rolled out.
“We want to have a little bit of holiday and sort of big things like that, but we also want to focus on history.”
The history Farmington High School senior Eira Prakash says was lacking in her AP US History class.
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“We skipped over Japanese internment, the Chinese Exclusion Act and other Asian events that happened,” she said.
She says students should learn not only these historical events, but…
“Just building that general sense of identity and what that means and how you can have different identities to make you who you are,” she said.
Prakash acknowledges covering the many cultures of Asia is a challenge and says instead teachers should have their lessons be representative of their classroom makeup.
“If your community has a large percentage of Chinese people, then having that general literacy within the community reflects that,” she said.
Lin says buy-in from educators is pivotal in making the rollout successful.
“Hopefully the learning that we get from all of that will help our students open up their minds and see these cross-cultural connections,”
The curriculum is to be rolled out to schools starting in the 2025-2026 school year.
