Signs your Child’s Curriculum Has Been Whitewashed

A critical part of learning about racism is learning how to challenge and unlearn racist ideas.  

Racist ideas are taught to us from a young age through family, friends, the cultures we ascribe to, and the media we consume. But there is another large source that often goes undetected and unaddressed by families: their child’s school curricula. 

Whether you are a parent with children in private school, public school or homeschool, racist ideas permeate learning curricula in many disciplines, including history, geography, language arts, government, politics, science, and more. It’s called whitewashing. 

A whitewashed curriculum is one in which minority and marginalized communities are left out of the picture and often involves hiding the truth in order to favor white stories, experiences, and perspectives. Detecting whether or not a curriculum has been whitewashed can be tough, but here are a few red flags. 

Diverse Perspectives Are Missing

It’s often said that history is written by the winners. What it means is that too often it’s the people who conquered who are framing events in a story. It’s an important idea to understand because all stories that involve more than one person, by default, have more than one side to them, more than one perspective, and more than one impact. Not representing all the sides can lead to a very limited understanding of events, peoples, and legacies. Being told the same limited versions of historical events over time builds bias that favors those versions in our minds. 

For example: when many people think of the Middle Ages, images of Europeans in large castles, knights fighting in shining armor, kings, and queens tend to come to mind. But why? Well, because Europe is usually the main focus of historical discussions on the Middle Ages for children. It was that way when I was a child in school and it is that way now for my own children.

But Europe was only one part of the world during the Middle Ages.  In the same time period, parts of the Middle East and Africa were going through their Golden Age and making lasting contributions to the fields of science, mathematics, and medicine. In addition,  Indigenous people in the Americas were constructing extravagant cities made of stone, and Japan was developing some of the most skilled warriors and artisans the world has ever seen.  

If your child’s curriculum feels like it’s consistently representing only one side of a story, or only one majority group of people, learn to ask yourself (and teach your children to ask): who is telling this story and who is being left out of the narrative? 

People of Color Are Not Celebrated 

Knowledge and contributions of people of color are often ignored, particularly in the areas of math and science. Here are some examples:

• The tales of Galileo (European) and his contributions to astronomy are abundant but rarely do we hear about the work of Ibn Al Haytham (Arab), known as the “Father of Optics.”  This Muslim inventor discovered through very scientific methods how our eyes perceive light (the foundational understanding for the making of telescopes).
• European explorers, like Columbus and Magellan, are praised while other incredibly skilled explorers such as the Polynesian Wayfinders or Abubakari II of West Africa (who sailed to the Americas long before Columbus did) are completely ignored. 
• Newton (European again!) is famed for his work with calculus while earlier Persian mathematicians’ entire published works, such as the Treatise of Equations, which developed multiple calculus concepts, have to be dug out of the depths of Google. 

When we minimize or completely ignore the skills, knowledge, and contributions of communities of color, we set ourselves up to view and judge those communities through a Eurocentric lens. This in turn sets us up to view and judge ourselves through that lens, too. 

If your child’s curriculum seems to only celebrate the stories of White European discoveries, teach yourself and your children to ask: what could this knowledge have been built upon and whose contributions might have come before it? 

Defining People of Color by their Struggles

Growing up in the United States, we all learn about slavery and civil rights. But how many of us, especially those of us who are not Black, are familiar with the wealth of Black history that comes before, in between, and after those time periods? 

When we learn about Native communities in this country, we learn about their losses against colonization, Sacagawea, and the Trail of Tears. Again, how many of us, especially those of us who are not First Nations, are familiar with the wealth of Indigenous history that comes before, in between, and after these time periods? 

When we define communities only by their past struggles, it is impossible for us to see or appreciate the true knowledge, beauty, and value of those communities, locally and globally. We also become distanced from the needs and contributions of those communities throughout time and into the present. In short, it's dehumanizing. 

School definitely didn’t fill the gaps for me when I was a youth and to this day, it still takes regular and active commitment to teach myself and my children a more inclusive picture. 

If your child’s curriculum seems to only discuss communities of color in terms of historical struggles, learn more yourself and teach your children to seek more knowledge on the history of those same communities before and after their periods of struggle. 

What to Do about a Whitewashed Curriculum?

If any of the above red flags show up consistently in your child’s learning curriculum, that curriculum has probably been whitewashed. It may feel beyond your ability to do anything about it, but parents often have more power and capacity to create change than we allow ourselves to think.

If you have discovered a whitewashed curriculum, try the following: 

• For those in public or private schools, speak with your child’s teacher and/or principal about your findings and concerns.
• Suggest to the school that more diverse representations are included in the stories and lessons taught.
• Contact the publisher to express your findings and concerns.
• If your child is home-educated, do some research and switch to a curriculum that is more diverse. 
• Focus on the areas that are valid and supplement the areas you feel need more depth and perspective. 
• Talk with your child regularly about representation, inclusion, and diverse perspectives. 
• Learn alongside your child to help them (and yourself) fill in any knowledge gaps and gain a deeper understanding.
• Supplement your learning by adding more diverse resources to your home library in the form of books, documentaries, websites, podcasts, or even family trips. 
• Teach your child to think critically about what they learn.  

Educating our children about racism begins with challenging what we were taught. Working alongside your child, teaching them to think critically, and asking deeper questions is a critical first step to unlearning racist ideas and moving forward with a better understanding, a more inclusive perspective, and commitment to lifelong learning. 

Melissa Barreto is a home educating mother of five and Co-Founder of Wildflower Homeschool Collective, a homeschool organization based in Northern New Jersey.