An interview with Tenia Jenkins
Keep on keeping on
Keep on keeping on
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
If Martin and others hadn’t walked across the Edmond-Pettis Bridge, we may not be voting
today,” said Tenia Jenkins as we sat in some lounge chairs at the Lussier Community Education
Center. “If Rosa Parks hadn’t sat down on the bus, we might still be sitting on the back seat of the
bus. And if we won’t stand for equity for Black children in this school district, 20-30 years from
now, we may still be having the same conversation. So if Martin walked and Rosa sat, we need to
stand.”
Jenkins has been doing a lot of standing over the past four years in her effort to have the
Madison Metropolitan School District adapt a culturally-relevant curriculum for African American
students who are struggling academically. And after Dane County United took on culturally-
relevant education as one of its two initiatives, Jenkins may be one step closer to seeing her
dream realized.
On April 2, Dane County United held a community forum at Covenant Presbyterian Church
on Segoe Road to present its case for four-year old kindergarten and culturally-relevant education
to members of the Madison school board and Superintendent Dan Nerad. While Jenkins had
been feeling the need to speak out for culturally-relevant education, it was the
Part 2 of 2
If Martin and others hadn’t walked across the Edmond-Pettis Bridge, we may not be voting
today,” said Tenia Jenkins as we sat in some lounge chairs at the Lussier Community Education
Center. “If Rosa Parks hadn’t sat down on the bus, we might still be sitting on the back seat of the
bus. And if we won’t stand for equity for Black children in this school district, 20-30 years from
now, we may still be having the same conversation. So if Martin walked and Rosa sat, we need to
stand.”
Jenkins has been doing a lot of standing over the past four years in her effort to have the
Madison Metropolitan School District adapt a culturally-relevant curriculum for African American
students who are struggling academically. And after Dane County United took on culturally-
relevant education as one of its two initiatives, Jenkins may be one step closer to seeing her
dream realized.
On April 2, Dane County United held a community forum at Covenant Presbyterian Church
on Segoe Road to present its case for four-year old kindergarten and culturally-relevant education
to members of the Madison school board and Superintendent Dan Nerad. While Jenkins had
been feeling the need to speak out for culturally-relevant education, it was the
| Tenia Jenkins has been at the forefront of efforts to get the Madison public schools to adopt a culturally-relevant curriculum for African American students |
community as embodied in Dane County United that spoke to the need. Jenkins was one of the community members who were a witness to the proceedings.
In essence, what the culturally-relevant education proposals requests is that the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) target some of its funds to create
an initiative that would create a series of courses that would be relevant to African American children and encourage them to strengthen their basic academic
skills.
At the MMSD strategic planning sessions that Jenkins attended, the district handed out a list of the programs currently offered by MMSD. “There is not one
class in there on African American anything,” Jenkins observed. “Of course there is all kinds of White stuff. American history classes are written from the
perspective of those who won the war, whichever war you are talking about. African American history is written by African American writers like Lerone Bennett,
Jr. You can’t pretend that when you say American history that Black folks are integratedly a part of that.”
Jenkins observed that the needs of other groups in the district are met overtly or subvertly by specialized programming. And many of these programs are
open to and benefit the student body as a whole. “Recently they announced the dual language immersion programs at Leopold and other schools,” Jenkins
oberved. “They will use some Title I money to do this with. And that’s good if it is culturally-relevant for Latino children. That’s the way we want African-centered
education set up so that a bunch of White kids and a bunch of Latino kids can also feel comfortable in that setting. So you set up a mechanism that targets one
group and the other groups obviously benefit from it. But there are some groups where that doesn’t happen, for example, the gifted and talented classes in the
district. They’ve been around for 20-25 years. And most Black children are still not benefiting from them, only a few here and a few there. So what we are simply
asking is for the district to set up the same kind of thing for Black children that they are doing for White students in terms of gifted and talented classes. And then,
anyone can come in there.”
What Jenkins and Dane County United envision is a series of classes that will meet the needs of African American and all students with an interest in the
subject matter being taught. At the core of the proposal is the strengthening of teacher skills to teach the curriculum. “What we are looking for now is the district
to hire 3-5 instructional resource teachers in the district who have taught and been successful in teaching cultural relevancy for African American children who
could then teach a cohort of 25-30 teachers in the district of how to do this and identify some schools that would accept the challenge of doing this,” Jenkins
said. “What we are looking for is good teachers who say ‘I know I can do this and I want to step up.’ And most of those teachers are going to be White because that
is who we have in the school district. I believe teachers who are hungry for this training constitute 15-20 percent of the teaching population in Madison schools.
Those are teachers who are willing to be taught and know that Black children are not their own enemy and they didn’t create their own hell hole. These teachers
could then implement culturally-relevant education for African American students in the classes they already teach or could work to offer new courses.”
What Jenkins hopes evolves from this effort is curriculum that is relevant for African American students that will help them develop a perspective on
themselves and their history, develop the desire to achieve academically and develop the skills needed to get there. “For example, if we got three school
teachers at Memorial High School who said they want to teach classes on culturally-relevant education for Black children, for example, an African American
history class, and African American men’s issues class, and African American women’s issues class and an African American English class and we’re strongly
suggesting that these classes be anchored by study skills for academic success class,” Jenkins said. “You can’t just offer the classes and not have the skill
component to teach the kids. If you can’t write a five-paragraph essay, you can’t write. And no matter how high my expectations are of you, if you were never
taught to write, you aren’t going to write it. You have to have mentors who sit down with you and teach you that process. It’s the same with science and math.”
The challenge now is to get funding for the initiative into the 2009-2010 school budget. Superintendent Nerad has said that only items that are a part of the
district’s strategic plan will be considered for funding. “We reminded him that closing the achievement gap and culturally relevant education have been part of
the strategic plan for five years,” Jenkins said. “The strategic planning committee supported most of what we had in our proposal. What we are hoping for is that
we can do this in such a way that they will adopt it as a part of this year’s budget. It’s important to have the community behind the superintendent and the school
board in working on this.” As of now, culturally-relevant education is not included in the 2009-2010 school budget although Dane County United hopes that some
of the funds designated for the implementation of the strategic plan and other discretionary funds can be used to implement it.
While Jenkins has high hopes for this effort if it is funded, she knows that change will not come overnight. She feels that the initiative would take 3-5 years
before it would begin to show results. But first it will take school district funding to get the initiative started. Until that time, Jenkins will remain standing for African
American and other students who could benefit from culturally-relevant education.
In essence, what the culturally-relevant education proposals requests is that the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) target some of its funds to create
an initiative that would create a series of courses that would be relevant to African American children and encourage them to strengthen their basic academic
skills.
At the MMSD strategic planning sessions that Jenkins attended, the district handed out a list of the programs currently offered by MMSD. “There is not one
class in there on African American anything,” Jenkins observed. “Of course there is all kinds of White stuff. American history classes are written from the
perspective of those who won the war, whichever war you are talking about. African American history is written by African American writers like Lerone Bennett,
Jr. You can’t pretend that when you say American history that Black folks are integratedly a part of that.”
Jenkins observed that the needs of other groups in the district are met overtly or subvertly by specialized programming. And many of these programs are
open to and benefit the student body as a whole. “Recently they announced the dual language immersion programs at Leopold and other schools,” Jenkins
oberved. “They will use some Title I money to do this with. And that’s good if it is culturally-relevant for Latino children. That’s the way we want African-centered
education set up so that a bunch of White kids and a bunch of Latino kids can also feel comfortable in that setting. So you set up a mechanism that targets one
group and the other groups obviously benefit from it. But there are some groups where that doesn’t happen, for example, the gifted and talented classes in the
district. They’ve been around for 20-25 years. And most Black children are still not benefiting from them, only a few here and a few there. So what we are simply
asking is for the district to set up the same kind of thing for Black children that they are doing for White students in terms of gifted and talented classes. And then,
anyone can come in there.”
What Jenkins and Dane County United envision is a series of classes that will meet the needs of African American and all students with an interest in the
subject matter being taught. At the core of the proposal is the strengthening of teacher skills to teach the curriculum. “What we are looking for now is the district
to hire 3-5 instructional resource teachers in the district who have taught and been successful in teaching cultural relevancy for African American children who
could then teach a cohort of 25-30 teachers in the district of how to do this and identify some schools that would accept the challenge of doing this,” Jenkins
said. “What we are looking for is good teachers who say ‘I know I can do this and I want to step up.’ And most of those teachers are going to be White because that
is who we have in the school district. I believe teachers who are hungry for this training constitute 15-20 percent of the teaching population in Madison schools.
Those are teachers who are willing to be taught and know that Black children are not their own enemy and they didn’t create their own hell hole. These teachers
could then implement culturally-relevant education for African American students in the classes they already teach or could work to offer new courses.”
What Jenkins hopes evolves from this effort is curriculum that is relevant for African American students that will help them develop a perspective on
themselves and their history, develop the desire to achieve academically and develop the skills needed to get there. “For example, if we got three school
teachers at Memorial High School who said they want to teach classes on culturally-relevant education for Black children, for example, an African American
history class, and African American men’s issues class, and African American women’s issues class and an African American English class and we’re strongly
suggesting that these classes be anchored by study skills for academic success class,” Jenkins said. “You can’t just offer the classes and not have the skill
component to teach the kids. If you can’t write a five-paragraph essay, you can’t write. And no matter how high my expectations are of you, if you were never
taught to write, you aren’t going to write it. You have to have mentors who sit down with you and teach you that process. It’s the same with science and math.”
The challenge now is to get funding for the initiative into the 2009-2010 school budget. Superintendent Nerad has said that only items that are a part of the
district’s strategic plan will be considered for funding. “We reminded him that closing the achievement gap and culturally relevant education have been part of
the strategic plan for five years,” Jenkins said. “The strategic planning committee supported most of what we had in our proposal. What we are hoping for is that
we can do this in such a way that they will adopt it as a part of this year’s budget. It’s important to have the community behind the superintendent and the school
board in working on this.” As of now, culturally-relevant education is not included in the 2009-2010 school budget although Dane County United hopes that some
of the funds designated for the implementation of the strategic plan and other discretionary funds can be used to implement it.
While Jenkins has high hopes for this effort if it is funded, she knows that change will not come overnight. She feels that the initiative would take 3-5 years
before it would begin to show results. But first it will take school district funding to get the initiative started. Until that time, Jenkins will remain standing for African
American and other students who could benefit from culturally-relevant education.