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Early in the school year, during our 10th grade African American History class, students were engaged in a discussion about the 1967 student walkout protest in Philadelphia. As a hook to the lesson, I explained that the protest ultimately led to African American History becoming a graduation requirement in our district. Expectedly, students perked up when they realized how this historical event impacted their lives today. I wanted to then focus the discussion on what lessons we could take from the walkout protest, but students were stuck on the graduation requirement. After a few students expressed their appreciation for a course dedicated to African American History, one student expressed a contrary opinion: “I don’t think African American History should be its own class. It should be mixed with American History class.” 

I felt nervous and conflicted about letting students respond to this comment. Mainly, the comment was moving our discussions further away from the key goal: to consider the lessons learned from the protest. Also, I did not want to debate the merits of this class. I strongly believe that one of the key purposes of African American History class in a majority-Black school is empowering Black students by teaching them about consistent Black resistance and activism against racism–of which the 1967 student walkout is a great example–and I did not want to open this up for debate. But, I noticed that other students seemed to be shifting in their seats to hear their classmate better, showing interest in his opinion that it shouldn’t be a separate class. I wanted the conversation to be student-centered without it veering too far from the content goals.