People of Color in Bigger?

[mothermayi?]

Does Bigger discuss people of color in any other way besides slavery?

I looked through the introduction on HOD's site and I cannot determine this.

Thanks!

[MelInKansas]

Does it discuss them in what way? I'm just not sure what you mean or what you are looking for here.

Right now we are still in the stages of discussing the Europeans' settlement in North America and the conflicts and views the Native Americans and European settlers had of one another. An interesting racial discussion in and of itself. (we are in Unit 6). But I have been through Bigger before and would be happy to look ahead or discuss what I remember of it.

[mothermayi?]

Are people of African descent discussed in a manner other than "they were slaves?" Are there specific Black men and women covered in the guide? If so, whom? If not, I will need to prepare a supplement, which is why I ask now instead of waiting until we begin Bigger.

Thank you for your help!

[bethelmommy]

We read Phillis Wheatley as our biography read aloud and loved it. She was the first famous female poet in the colonies. We are only 7 units into Bigger so I can't speak to what comes later.

[Nealewill]

I agree that the two history texts themselves published by Eggleston do not have people of color in them (they might but it but when I looked through the table of contents, I didn't see anyone stand out specifically.) The book Journey through time includes Big Joe Bailey and Harriet Tubman (so this is mentioned around slavery) but it also mentions Louis Armstrong. Like Bethelmommy, Phillis Wheatley is included as a Biography and you could easily read about here. But story time and DITHOR are places you could easily add in more books on people of color that you want your kids to learn about. As you go up in level though, I know there were people of color mentioned in Preparing. CTC is all older history and is not mentioning people of color as you think of it - however most of race is "black" because you spend quite a bit of time in Africa. In the book The God King, it specifically states that the Pharaoh has black skins.

One of the things we have found now that we do HOD is that my kids LOVE biographies. I still read to my kids at night and I usually pick independent things on my own to read. I will regularly pick out biographies about whom ever we want to learn about. That would be one thing that could easily be added to include more people of color and would target great people whom you are interested in teaching them about. And I haven't yet completed Rev2Rev or MTMM but I would envision that there are probably several people of color discussed in those levels as well. A significant portion of Bigger does encompass the time period before and when the US was birthed and so far has not included great achievements that we typically think of when we think about "people of color" as of yet. I am only on unit 15 now so there may be more people whom I just haven't read too much about yet. In unit 15 we are right around the year 1776 right now.

[MelInKansas]

I agree with Nealewill. I remember a couple from Journeys in Time, and I think there may have been a short unit on George Washington Carver for science but other than that, really not much on people of color. There was a lot more in Preparing - Harriet Tubman being one that stands out, and just the emphasis on World History has you learning about prominent people in many cultures and countries, Egypt, Africa, China, etc. It really opens up the world and all the different kinds of people.

So, yes adding in some for Biography or Historical Fiction would be very appropriate, even African American authors if you can find good books of the right genre and reading level. Extra reading books from the library and such if you want to. I don't think you would need to add much to get the emphasis you want.