Chicago Public Schools will teach an interdisciplinary Latino and Latin American Studies curriculum to all K-10 students, Melissa Sanchez reports for Catalyst Chicago.
“Kindergartners can learn about the Mayan counting system while they’re learning numbers, and fifth-graders can learn about African influences on South American percussion during music class,” she writes.
“The history of Chicago cannot be written without celebrating the contributions of immigrants from Central America, South America and the Caribbean,” CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in a district news release.
More than 45 percent of CPS students are Latino.
On The White Rhino, a Chicago English teacher named Ray Salazar called the curriculum well-intentioned but over-simplified.
Chicago already is piloting an African and African American studies curriculum that was released last year.