Many of my friends will notice an inbox from me...This is the petition that I am asking you to read and support...It was started by Joshua McMillon, of Lynchburg, Va...I consider it one of the most important petitions I have supported..It is self-explanatory...Thanking you in advance: Throughout my experience as an AP European History student during my senior year of high school, I felt as though only a portion of that European history was being introduced and learned in the classroom. As this was no fault of my instructor, nor her teaching abilities, which were superb by the way, but a result of the curriculum and list of required events, wars etc. necessary to pass the subsequent AP exam, I believe that it is saddening, and even criminal, to exclude history and information that could possibly alter a students perspective of Europe as a whole: the Moorish and African presence in Europe that consequently and effectively laid the foundation for the Renaissance, and the artistic, scientific, and social revolutions for which Europe and her inhabitants esteem themselves so highly. I believe it is criminal to not teach that Africans traveled to Greece and introduced mathematics and science, or that Moors introduced modern farming techniques, ways of life, and literature that can be accredited to Europes propulsion out of the Dark Ages. I find it criminal that there are three Catholic popes of African ancestry that are not being discussed. I find it criminal that students arent learning that some of Spanish and Portugese architecture is heavily influenced by Moorish architecture. Why didnt we learn about the black member of the de Medici family, or of the African ancestry of Alexandre Pushkin, Alexandre Dumas, or of John Archer or Abram Ganibal? I am not petitioning for the College Board to transform AP Euro into an afrocentric class by any means. I am petitioning for the College Board to include much of the history that is being left out, to include the foundation of modern Europe - although it may be pre-Renaissance - in order to rightfully educate students that the Renaissance didnt just happen out of the blue. Although self-education is wonderful, students shouldnt have to self-educate themselves about the world to fill in gaps in history that should already be full. What happened in modern Europe happened because of the interaction of people on this Earth and that is what makes history so amazing; history like that should never be left out. Sign Joshuas Petition
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 09:25:23 +0000