Lindsay Schneider

Dr. Erica Still

African-American Poetry
ENG 689 Fall 2014

A Modern Education of Southern History
(or a Call for a Re-Birth of the Null)

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. A popular mantra, this
quote illuminates the value and role of history as well as its cyclical nature. In her collection
Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey considers history as a vehicle to get from there to here
(Trethewey, Theories of Time and Space) and a means of repetition with a difference. She gives
preeminence to historical narratives and retellings, both from her personal life and from a
national standpoint. Yet, in her poem Southern History, readers are called to consider the
effects of a mis-telling of history. From an educational perspective, this begs the question: how
are we not doomed to repeat history if students cannot learn a true account of history because of
the null curriculum? By reading Southern History alongside Evie Shockleys poem my last
modernist poem, #4 (or re-re-birth of a nation), readers are further called to consider how this
mis-telling of history is not a one-time event but rather a marker in a long race. The
consequences of a false history are even harder than those of the miracle of bringing the truth to
life. By examining Natasha Tretheweys Southern History and her identity as a biracial
women in the context of Evie Shockleys unfinished race portrayed in my last modernist poem,
#4 (or re-re-birth of a nation), readers are called to grab the baton in this race and consider what
is not being taught in the American public school classroom.
Within the field of education, Elliott W. Eisner presents the widely accepted theory that
there are three types of curriculum: explicit, hidden, and null. The explicit curriculum is that
which is written and overtly taught to students. The hidden curriculum is what students learn
from the daily structural routines in the classroom. The hidden curriculum can send students
both positive and negative messages. For example, the American public school system
traditionally teaches students that being punctual, quiet, and orderly are traits that society values
through the daily practices of a bell system, raising ones hand to speak in the classroom and not
speaking while the teacher is speaking. The null curriculum is what is not taught in schools.
Whether intentional or not, the null curriculum signals students that what is not taught is not
important, or at least not as important as the explicit curriculum. The effects and consequences
of the null curriculum can be lasting and far-reaching. Eisner himself claims. What students
cannot consider, what they dont processes they are unable to use, have consequences for the
kinds of lives they lead (Eisner, 103). When students are not exposed to cultures, histories, and
perspectives, they cannot integrate them into their learning and their understanding of the world
around them. Thus, history is doomed to repeat itself.
Natasha Thetheweys poem Southern History, can be read and explored more deeply
by exploring the explicit curriculum and the null curriculum in the classroom. Southern
History paints a vivid image of the speakers presumably Thethewey herself - recollection of
a specific moment in her senior year history classroom. The speaker recounts an event in which
she is aware that she is not being given a full account of the history of the South and that there
are substantial gaps in the material presented. As is consistent throughout her collection, this
poem examines the intersection of history and its modern contemporaries and reiterations.
Engaging with the themes of repetition with a differences the value and significance of history,
Southern History has an important place in the larger collection of Native Guard and in readers
understanding of how history and the null curriculum shape and inform our understanding of
the world. While the poem centers on one seemingly small moment which takes place in a
history class, the language and underlying themes of this poem indicate to the reader that this one
moment bears significant impact and largely unconstructive results.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker reflects that the teacher is quoting our
textbook. The verb quoting implies a mindless repetition which stands in stark contrast to the
formal and structural intentional repetition seen in the poems like Native Guard and Myth.
Unlike the underlying theme of repetition without a difference which is seen throughout the
collection, quoting possess no difference; quotations are simply a recitation of the past. This
mindless repetition leads significant consequences in the poem. Rather than engaging with the
consequences or the students, the teacher is merely quoting a text book, an act students could
easily complete on their own. Students disengagement is seen in the lines I watched the words
blur on the page. No one / raised a hand, disagreed. Not even me. Here, one can read an
implication and significant shift in the poem. The mindless quoting of the textbook can longer
be overlooked as merely a simple act of repetition. Its effects have transposed onto the students
in the class. Words became insincere and void of content. They are now viewed as something
to cover before the test and a burden to bear before the lucky reward of three hours of
watching Gone with the Wind. What is being explicitly taught is dull, at best; what is not being
taught speaks volumes: this one account of the past requires no critical analysis, no other
perspectives or accounts of this time period.
The teachers quotation of the textbook can be conceptualized as a passive and
unengaged methodology. While recitation certainly has a role in the classroom, it is clearly, at
best, ineffective in this moment. At worst, it is intentional; it causes students to not critically
analyze and evaluate the material at hand and how this history shapes their daily lives. The
students become merely receptacles which knowledge ought to be deposited into (Freire).
This reading is supported in the text as the speaker claims, a lie / my teacher guarded. The
diction of guarded implies the teacher is deeply implicated in the conscious decision to
withhold the full truth regarding the lives of slaves. The null curriculum intersects with the
explicit curriculum in a dangerous manner. Unlike the mindless recitation in stanza one, the
image here is one of intentional secret keeping. Guarded also holds deeper connections in
light of the collection as a whole. Perhaps, like the speaker of Native Guard, at first this
teacher did not want to forget; perhaps he had the best of intentions to engage students and
present a holistic view of history in his classroom. Perhaps as time moved on he began to
[forget]. Truth be told (Trethewey, 30) that there is more to the story than just the words on the
page of the textbook and that there are stories which do not deck the page of history / as it is
written in stone (Trethewey, 28). Perhaps he forgot to put down in ink what [he knew]
(Thethewey, 27).
Unlike the teacher, the speaker does more than recite the days lessons and events.
Rather, the speaker actively reflects on her own role in the story and how her own current
knowledge and understanding could have informed the moment. The admission Not even me
and Silent, so did I. connotes of feeling of a missed opportunity which the speaker now
believes she had autonomy and responsibly to respond to. The speaker in intimately aware this
history is not a complete story. She is aware of her history a history in which her ancestors are
represented from their own point of view and is not presented through rose-colored glasses is
invalid. Her history, her family is not important enough to draw the attention of her peers. Her
experience is null.
However, the speaker who is seemingly the focus of this poem is not the ultimate
concern. Nor is the forgetfulness or the conscious decision on the part of the teacher the ultimate
concern. Rather, in the context of education, one must consider the other students in the class.
What happens to the students who are only ever exposed to the explicit curriculum as it is
presented in this moment? The true account is the students sitting in the class are only presented
with the textbooks grinning proof and three hours of watching Gone with the Wind. The
explicit curriculum the students are taught states, Before the war, they were happy / The
slaves were clothed, fed, / and better off under a masters careHistoryof the old South - / a
true account of how things were back then. Backed up with contrived evidence, a slave stood
big as life: big mouth / bucked eyes, our textbooks grinning proof, the students are presented
with a one-sided lie, unlike the true account they were promised. The null curriculum is equally
as important as explicit curriculum. Not only are the students explicitly taught a lie, they are also
taught that the perspective of the slaves is unimportant, not worth studying. And, unlike the
speaker, the do not know this is happening. How can these students live lives filled with social
justice and concern for others when they are unaware of the history of their own country? How
can the future not be doomed to repeat the history before the war when students have no
account of the reality of that time?
Assuming Trethewey herself is the speaker of Southern History and placing Southern
History in the larger context of Native Guard, readers are called to reflect upon how this history
and omission continues to problematize our society. Trethewey, the student-speaker, knows the
truth about Southern History because of her upbringing. She knows the story and the history
of her oppressed ancestors. Yet, in school, she is also being taught the story and the history
(albeit a partial one) of her ancestors, the oppressors. Thetheweys identity as a biracial woman
means her family history is that of the oppressor and the oppressed. Her mixed heritage is
clearly seen and explored in poems such as Southern Gothic and Miscegenation. In the
American public education system, the stories of biracial and multicultural people and their
contributions are even more null than what is excluded in Southern History. The lack of
biracial models can be viewed as another form of mindless quotations and silencing.
This is not to say that we, as a public school system, have even begun to adequately
address the concerns raised in Southern History. Certainly there are an alarming number of
schools who teach slavery, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction era amidst all of history as
a one-sided tale of white men. Certainly there are still an alarming number of well-educated
students who have silently sat in their seats and are wholly unaware of that which they are not
being taught. Certainly the concerns previously raised with regard to the null curriculum are still
rampant. Rather, this serves a call to reconsider the entirety of the null curriculum and to closely
examine and reconsider how the American public school system addresses the histories of non-
white men.
This is not an easy call; it is a call of the highest standard. We like to think we, as society,
have progressed from scenes like those in Incident or Scenes from a Documentary History of
Mississippi or Native Guard, yet this is not the true account. Evie Shockleys my last
modernist poem, #4 (or re-re-birth of a nation), implores readers to continue to investigate
Tretheweys themes of the repetition of history and its intersection with contemporary times. In
this poem, Shockley further warns readers not to be caught up in the allusion of the finish (ed)
line as it whips around again / and again. Readers are reminded that while we prefer to see
the 21
st
century as the end of race, this also is not a true account. Rather, we still are providing
momentum to the lethal spring coiled in the snow if we do not address what our students are
leaning in the classroom. Thus, we must be ever aware and conscious of what is and what is not
being taught through the curriculum we present our students. May we never slip into a mindless
quotation!
The null curriculum surrounding the excluded stories of the United States bears extensive
consequences. The issue of the lack of biracial role models and stories is another modern
iteration of the same problems which plagued the classroom in Southern History. The
mindless quotation of histories and literacies which ignore the lives and contributions of people
with non-white heritage is a null curriculum which intrinsically shapes the lives of todays
students. Just as the student-speaker in Southern History is haunted by her silent knowledge of
what her textbook and teacher excluded, so too are there students sitting in classrooms today who
know their history text is incomplete. Moreover, Southern History must be read as a modern
education tale. We must consider the students who sit in todays classrooms not raising their
hands because they have not been taught better. We must call Lazarus forth from the dead even
when we know the hard part comes afterwards (Shockley). We must expose the null
curriculum for what it is. We must explicitly provide more for our students. Trethewey and
Shockley both engage with the repetition of history and its intersection and impact on
contemporary times. The explicit instruction of the whole of history is our greatest tool by
which we can bring forth from the dead the likelihood of being doomed to repeat history with no
difference.


Works Cited and References
Eisner, Elliott W. The educational imagination: On design and evaluation of school
programs. (3rd. ed) New York: Macmillan. 2000. Print.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print.
Trethewey, Natasha D. Native Guard. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.
Shockley, Evie. The New Black. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2011. Print.