“Not many Americans know about Asian American history, and even Asian American students do not know about their history,” said Wei Liu, UI associate director of International Programs. “In Illinois, Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups, but there’s no content visible in the curriculum based on Asian American history.”
On April 15, a bill called the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act passed through the Illinois House of Representatives, which would make Illinois the first state to mandate Asian American education in its schools, according to the UI’s Office of International Programs.
Liu isn’t waiting for the bill to be signed into law, though. As a part of the Asian American Education Initiative, which utilizes Asian American literature to teach racial equity, Liu reached out to hundreds of Asian American authors to set up classroom visits around Champaign-Urbana.
On Tuesday and Friday, three Asian American children’s authors visited Kenwood Elementary School, International Prep Academy and University Primary School via Zoom to speak with classes about their writing process, show them their studios and to read them their books.
“It went really well,” Liu said. “I think it’s just very fortunate that we have incredibly supportive teachers and principals, because they were all concerned about the recent uprising in anti-Asian discrimination and how that affected their students, particularly their Asian students. They thought this would be a great way to teach about racial equity in the classroom and to discuss the current bias against Asian Americans.”
Source: The News-Gazette/Top of the Morning, May 15, 2021
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