Board of Education blocks proposed women’s history course for ‘08
Board of Education blocks proposed women’s history course for ‘08:
Mrs. Wagner’s hopes dashed as units on abortion, birth control disallowed
By Maya Barlev
After social studies and staff development teacher Mary Wagner and junior Elizabeth Gipson spent several months designing a course in women’s studies to be taught next year, the Montgomery County Board of Education refused to pass it.
“The course outline seems to have a liberal slant,” Mrs. Wagner recalls director of curriculum and structure Betsy Brown saying to her in July. Specifically, the curriculum details the history of birth control and abortion, which were considered controversial by the Board.
If the topics were removed, “we’d be leaving out two extremely important issues that have absolutely changed the lives of women,” says Mrs. Wagner. “These are public policy issues, and they need to be discussed from all sides of the issue in order to understand why they are public policy issues to begin with.”
The idea to start a women’s history course began when Gipson, then in tenth grade, decided there was something missing in the social studies curriculum. “[In US history], we only glazed over the Women’s Rights Movement—just enough time to memorize the names ‘Gloria Steinem’ and ‘Betty Friedan’… and to learn that the ERA was never passed,” says Gipson. “I realized, then, that I wanted to know more about women’s history.”
Gipson took a strong course of action by approaching the social studies department and lobbying to create this class. Soon after, Mrs. Wagner became the main person to design the curriculum with Gipson. Since the class is not taught anywhere else in the county, the syllabus had to be designed from scratch and then approved by the Board of Education.
With the help of other interested social studies teachers, the pair designed a course that would cover women in the United States and the public policy that gave them (or did not give them) rights, as well as women internationally and their continuous struggle for equality. “[Liz] was our inspiration,” says Mrs. Wagner. “We looked at her and said, ‘What do you want to learn?’ and that’s what we worked on.” To tie in all the broad topics they had been learning all year, the class would also have a final project that would spotlight specific women and how they changed their field of work.
Overall, the school was supportive in the creation of the class. Gipson spread the word to the student body with the help of juniors Sarah Peko-Spicer and Sacha Vega, while Mrs. Wagner gained support from the administration. Unfortunately, local support was not enough to get the course passed at the county level. “The school board is afraid of anything that could possibly be controversial and cause them problems,” says Gipson.
“The Board is litigation shy,” adds Mrs. Wagner. “[After being] sued publicly because of four days out of the health curriculum, they’re probably afraid [of these topics].”
While there is still a possibility that Mrs. Wagner will continue pursuing the approval of the course, Gipson’s interest has faded, since she will no longer be able to take it her senior year. Says Gipson, “I still believe the course is needed. It would be more influential to the school board, however, if they saw that a student who would actually be able to take the course was working on it—not just a teacher and some kid who’s graduating soon anyway.”
| 
