Features

February yards in San Marcos may look bleak and brown after freezing weather, yet many silently support wildlife, especially insect pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Spring Lake Garden Club’s first meeting of the new year featured an overview of how plants and insects depend on each other, especially in winter.

The VFW Auxiliary invites high school students in Grades 9 - 12 to participate in the Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest. The contest, which began in 1979 to recognize upand- coming artists and encourage patriotism in youth, offers the firstplace winner from each state a chance to compete for national awards totaling $34,000.

The Wimberley Community Civic Club is pleased to continue its tradition of offering financial aid to area students who have a record of achievement and who require financial assistance to pursue ed

Q.February is Black History Month. What are some examples of racism in historic educational literature? Also, why do we have Black History Month? A. Black History Month in the United States is a time of remembrance and celebration honoring the contributions and history of African Americans throughout the United States. It is particularly important because so much African American history has been diminished, obscured, ignored and outright dismissed by historians and, unfortunately, the public school system. As a collector of late 19thand early-20th century juvenile history and geography textbooks, I see this firsthand.* Many of the books in my collection often only mention African Americans in terms of their skin color and “characteristics” of their race. School books at this time focused on “levels of civilization.” People were “classified” in a pseudo-scientific way as “red, black, yellow and white.” For example, In the book titled, “The Elementary Geography Book” published as part of the Indiana Educational Series from the Indiana School Book Co., 1889, the levels of “civilization” and “Races of Men” are discussed in detail (p.20). Public schools throughout the country used this book to teach children not only geography, but overt racism. At one point the book blatantly says, “The white race is called the Caucasian. It is the ruling race of the world.” (p.20) The writing exercise in this chapter of the book asked the children to: