Anti-Eugenic K-12 Curricula
This entry, by Tenzin*, introduces the efforts made by K-12 students and educators across Connecticut to develop curricula informed by the American Eugenics Movement.
*Tenzin Dhondup (he/him) is a sophomore at Yale University, and studies History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health.
For me, the most important part of the working group was bringing the student perspective into curriculum development. As a student, I wanted to create a lesson for my peers that would allow us to reckon with the longstanding and far-reaching impacts of the American Eugenics Movement.
— Tenzin Mary Youdon, Senior at Engineering and Science University Magnet School
The working group, “Teaching about the Eugenics Movement in Connecticut: Racism and Resistance”, brought together 25 K-12 students and educators across the state and was made possible by the Black and Latino History Project.
Facilitated by Professor Daniel HoSang, Professor Bethsaida Nieves, Eve Galanis, and Dora Guo, students and educators in this group were able to support one another in their investigations of the American Eugenics Movement.
To make Yale’s resources available and accessible beyond the university gates, students and educators were provided with resources such as primary source guides, curricular guides, and a tour of the Yale University Archives to guide curriculum development. Importantly, this working group was a moment for participants to use these resources and bring their subjectivities and experiences together to form lesson plans designed for their classrooms and peers.
For example, students like Tenzin Youdon and Elsa Holahan were able to apply the anti-eugenic frameworks we learned about as a group. Tenzin was able to challenge the eugenic ideologies embedded in standardized testing at her high school, while Elsa was able to expand the breadth of Black and Latino Studies at her high school.
Even more, students and educators like Elias Theodore and Natalia Grant had the opportunity to localize the history lessons taught at their high schools. Elias was inspired after a trip to the Yale University Archives to create a lesson plan that interrogated Governor Wilbur Cross’s involvement with eugenics. He hoped that this would allow him and his peers to seriously consider what it means to attend Wilbur Cross High School.
Whereas Natalia Grant, 12th Grade History teacher at Norwich Free Academy, was inspired to study The Norwich State Hospital. She hoped “to put eugenics on an even more personal level, seeing as the Norwich State Hospital is only 3.7 miles away from campus”. View Natalia and others’ lesson plans on the website here.
Ultimately, Connecticut educators and students came together on March 23, 2023, to present 18 lesson plans (viewable here) created through our working group. In addition to creating a history curriculum that was local and examined the contemporary afterlives of eugenics, this project was a space to, as Tenzin Youdon said, “reckon with the longstanding and far-reaching impacts of the American Eugenics Movement”.