As Riverdale seniors get closer and closer to graduation, many may begin to look back and reflect on all they have learned during their time at school. However, many may be surprised to discover that the units and texts that they covered in years past are no longer there and have been replaced. Riverdale is a school which encourages experimentation, diversification, and innovation in the classroom; thus, curricula are often in flux. Especially in humanities courses, old texts are swapped out for newer ones as teachers try to curate a curriculum that is captivating, appropriate for, and representative of its students. This is a healthy process which helps keep both teachers and students engaged
To better diversify their curriculum, teachers have enhanced their programs by including sources and texts from or about underrepresented communities. Many institutions have already committed to building a greater sense of cultural cohesion and belonging by centering the stories and contributions of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people in particular.
But offering a diverse curriculum cannot happen overnight. So is Riverdale working to highlight more diverse perspectives, in ways that go further than surface-level progress?
Dr. Laura Honsberger, the Chair of the History Department, described the department’s goals in diversifying history curricula as “bringing in more perspectives to tell a truer and fuller story of the past to help us better understand how the world we live in was crafted and constructed; that it wasn’t an accident but the product of choices made by individuals throughout the course of history.” Ms. Melissa Miness, the Chair of the English Department, explained, “It’s incumbent upon us in the [English] department to be reflective of all human experience, or else we're not doing our jobs. So when we think about curricular work, it's a call for truth, and that goes beyond diversifying the curriculum. It's not just about the curriculum. It's about what and how we teach.”
In recent years, many schools around the country have made curriculum diversification a significant priority. Riverdale is no exception. Dr. Honsberger explained that “over the past decade, we’ve been working to think about this more intentionally and reflect to students the diversity of historians themselves who have a multitude of voices.”
By expanding our understanding of the primary source, we can begin to process the individual perspectives and voices of history that have been passed down to us. Incorporating different perspectives allows Riverdale students to expand their levels of engagement with the curriculum. Dr. Honsberger explained, “Bringing in a multitude of voices is tied to students feeling connected to the curriculum and seeing the relevance in their lives.”
That being said, there are those who don’t believe in the development of an inclusive academic curriculum. As a result, curriculum diversification can be a controversial subject. Dr. Honsberger believes this perception “often stems from a misunderstanding of what history is and what its role is. It comes from a belief that history is a set of facts that happened, a monolith you could say. Of course there is an event that took place, but there are fifteen different ways of telling the story of that event based on the different perspectives of the people as witnesses.”
Additionally, there are barriers to incorporating new approaches to academia, such as the significant time required to widen the perspectives students are exposed to. But Dr. Honsberger believes it is important and well worth the effort: “Sometimes when it comes to addressing structural things, it requires a second look in terms of how you’re approaching and tackling those challenges… that’s something I’ve been really excited to see our department do in the last five years.”
History classes at Riverdale have also long relied on primary sources, a challenge that has made it difficult for historians to tell, or access stories, in “methodologically sound” ways from places and cultures who do not record their primary sources in textual documents. “What’s preserved in archives isn’t an apolitical or a neutral decision, and so you have kind of two obstacles to being inclusive in that way,” Dr. Honsberger said.
While Riverdale has made great progress over the last decade, there’s still much to do. As Ms. Miness emphasized, “The more I think we can relish the complexity and diversity and richness of our community, the better and the more we can do that for members of our community. We have to stay true to our values…we have to stay true to what we are, what we know, and that's what we value: the beauty and the richness and the complexity of the human experience.”
