TOWAMENCIN – When many kids think of their favorite school subject, History may or may not be not at the top of their list. There have been no new history-related courses in the last few years at North Penn, but back in the 2021-2022 school year, teachers created a new course that focuses on the cultural aspects of those who have not been present in American History for hundreds of years.

Back in 2020 during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement North Penn decided to introduce a new course into the curriculum known as African American Studies.

“It is a misleading course because a lot of people think African American history is a history course ,but we are not going chronologically from past to present about what happened to African Americans. Rather, it focuses on aspects of social, political, and economic ideas related to African Americans,” Mr. Joel Wilson, just one of many who teaches the course, explained.

African American Studies is an in-depth course that, rather than explaining the history of African Americans, relates the present to the past allowing students to have deeper knowledge about the culture of African Americans.

“There is so much about black history that hasn’t been taught and I know why. It’s because it’s really bad and usually people who owned the publishing companies, they don’t wanna talk about that stuff,” Wilson elaborated.

African American Studies is a very interesting and sometimes sensitive topic to teach. The course teaches students the history that was cut out and the cultural significance of African Americans in society.

“There was a push from students for many years. African American students explained that much of their history was cut out and that they needed a course here,” Wilson noted..

The course took several years to come into effect with decisions on what the curriculum would consist of and the approval process being a daunting task to the course becoming a reality.

African American Studies is something that teachers hope will fill an important curricular void and leave lasting impressions on the students who enroll in the course.