Officials in New York City just announced a new pilot program that will teach Asian American and Pacific Islander history beginning this fall. Initially, the curriculum will be introduced to a number of to-be-determined schools throughout the city. After receiving teacher feedback on the pilot program, the curriculum will then be rolled out to all grade levels and all schools in the fall of 2024.

“This new curriculum is a milestone in our ongoing support to AAPI students and families in our public schools and communities,” said Schools Chancellor David Banks at a press conference at the DOE’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters Thursday.

“This curriculum will cover stories from numerous AAPI figures and a multitude of communities who have left their mark on this country,” Banks said. Example names in the curriculum will include historical figures like Dr. Anandibai Joshee, the first woman of Indian ancestry to be a doctor of Western medicine in the United States; Representative Patsy Mink, who was the first Asian American woman elected to Congress; and Helen Zia, the Chinese American journalist and Asian American and LGBTQ rights activist.

“This is especially important in light of the most recent hate crimes and violence against members of our AAPI community, which we simply must not tolerate in our city or our schools. One of the ways we combat racism and hate – and the mayor talks about this all the time – is by teaching and learning about each other's stories and histories. We are not the other. We are all New Yorkers. We are all Americans,” Banks said.

State Sen. John Liu was also at the event to announce the new pilot program. “This anti-Asian hate that we've seen so much of, it didn't just happen the last couple of years. It's been happening ever since the beginning of this country, ever since the first Asian Americans arrived at our shores. There is no question that there has been a direct correlation between the current onslaught of anti-Asian hate and the COVID-19 crisis,” Liu said. 

“Asian Americans have been scapegoats for a lot of things in our entire history, whether it be economic recession, international warfare, global pandemic – we get blamed,” Liu said. “And the reason we get blamed, and therefore hated and attacked, is because of ignorance. It's easy to blame people that you don't know or you don't understand. There is still an ongoing lack of knowledge of what Asian Americans are. We’re either model minorities, or perpetual foreigners, or worse yet, yellow peril.”

“We have a bill in the state legislature that would codify and mandate to teach AAPI history in the state of New York,” Liu continued. “You would think it should be a slam dunk. We have critics in Albany who say we’re trying to be divisive by teaching this history. They marginalize it or demonize it as critical race theory.”

New York City follows Illinois and New Jersey which are the first states that will require all public schools teach Asian American history.