WCW: Roni Dean-Burren

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It takes a lot of courage to speak out against the unjust. Roni Dean-Burren did more than that; she fought for what she knew was right in the court system. Before the announcement of the win of her case, I had never heard her name spoken before. I had never heard of anyone actually pursuing a court case about what our children read in textbooks everyday. I had heard of people discussing how it was an obvious problem in social settings, movies, books, and even had my own conversations about it with my parents as a young student, but never heard of anyone actually suing textbook publishers.

As a teacher or student, you may realize that McGraw-Hill has published the majority of textbooks used in schools; not only in Texas, but across the nation. There was once a time when children were allowed to bring home their textbooks, but because of responsibility issues that opportunity has been done away with in my child's generation. That said, we trusted that our children were learning history and social studies the way it should be taught. Yes, admittedly there have always been some gaps, but we as parents were generally willing to discuss and correct some of the misinformation given out in schools.

There is misinformation and then there are truths that some people do not want to be taught in schools. For instance, a group of parents here in Georgia made the news when they discovered and became concerned about their children learning about the Islamic religion. They were given an opportunity to opt out of their children learning about other faiths and cultures around the world because they did not agree with that particular faith and culture. What Roni did was very different, but came from the same place of parental concern. Most importantly, she was checking her child's homework assignments and was an active part of her child's learning! To be fair, both she and the parents in Georgia should be commended for that effort and diligence in ensuring that their children receive a quality education.

The difference is that Roni was tired of the status quo and when the history her child was learning  became ridiculously skewed, she as a parent did something about it. It is one thing not to want your children to learn something and quite another not to want to your children to be fed lies. Over time, our American history has become whitewashed (deleted, regulated to specific months, presented subjectively, and diminished). This time it was completely distorted. I am sure if you research her name you will discover the shocking factors of the case; the evidence she and her lawyers presented speaks for itself. However, this is not what this particular blog post is about. I wanted to take time to recognize a woman that cared so much not just for her child, but for all children, that she fought change the school system in her community to teach accurate, true, and validated information. As tax payers that choose to send our children to public schools, we deserve for our tax dollars to be spent on legitimately educating our children.

We as mothers, godmothers, aunties, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and of course, all the amazing Phatskinny Chics out here have a God given responsibility to provide the best for our children. Not just the children in our families, but for ALL children! Thank you Ms. Dean-Burren for doing just that and setting an example of what it takes to move in action and not just speak of action.