Multiculturalism

I can remember learning about America's history as early as about 2nd grade. It wasn't until about middle begin to question how history was presented. Being an "African American" (in quotations because that's only the technical term) I could never understand why "black history" was taught separate than American History. Was the school suggestions that blacks were not a part of America? Was this another way of still segregating blacks from whites.

Most blacks would rejoice and celebrate the fact that black have their own month to celebrate their history, as the month of February in school was when we concentrated on black history. So out of eight months of the year that we attended school, we spent 7 months learning about every other part of history and approximately 20 days, taking out the weekends, learning about "black history."

I have always felt as though American history is American history. It shouldn't matter whether the people you are learning about were black, Chinese, Indian, or white. The fact is that America is made up of all different ethnic groups, so all are a part of America's history and should be taught as such.  To have a book that  included all of America's history would be great and I believe it would help students see the big picture.