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And one way this foundational history enters our memories is through the classroom. This is work for all of us — to create, to share, to teach. Below are lessons, discussion questions, and writing prompts, which take students more deeply into Smith’s brilliant book. As Smith suggests, one cannot understand the history of the United States without focusing on the centrality of slavery — and this history is essential to helping our students make sense of the world around them.
Republican legislators in at least 42 states are offering the country a lesson in How the Word Is Suppressed. Their legislation takes aim at a host of curricular initiatives, approaches to understanding society (e.g., critical race theory), and organizations. What unites these measures is a determination to keep students from studying how slavery and exploitation based on race are fundamental to our lives today.
Teaching an accurate, honest, critical history is an act of resistance. As the Zinn Education Project’s “Pledge to Teach the Truth” insists: “From police violence, to the prison system, to the wealth gap, to maternal mortality rates, to housing, to education and beyond, the major institutions and systems of our country are deeply infected with anti-Blackness and its intersection with other forms of oppression. To not acknowledge this and help students understand the roots of U.S. racism is to deceive them — not educate them.”
The Pledge concludes: “We will continue our commitment to develop critical thinking that supports students to better understand problems in our society, and to develop collective solutions to those problems. We are for truth telling and uplifting the power of organizing and solidarity that move us toward a more just society.”
Clint Smith’s How the Word Is Passed can play an important role in that truth telling. We hope these lessons can help connect students to the critical wisdom contained in this book.
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