Gladys Mitchell-Walthour is an associate professor and the chair of the African and African Diaspora Studies Department, but it\u2019s her teaching outside of 51ÁÔÆæ that just landed her a $10,000 grant.<\/p>\n
Mitchell-Walthour is a member of a group of Black Milwaukee families that homeschool their children. The group, called Freedom Kilombo, meets weekly so students can interact with their friends and get additional learning opportunities through field trips and special classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all worked together to apply for this grant,\u201d Mitchell-Walthour said. \u201cThe focus was not just on our children, but how can we use these resources to reach out to other Black homeschoolers?\u201d<\/p>\n
She and two other mothers, Rachel Johnson, a PhD candidate at UW- Madison and a 51ÁÔÆæ alumna, and Aletha KhielSelah, led the charge to submit the grant proposal. The monies, awarded by a private foundation that has chosen to remain anonymous, will fund educational opportunities for children in the homeschooling group. Mitchell- Walthour notes that the grant will help pay for things like museum memberships or guest lecturers and speakers.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s important because Mitchell- Walthour and the other parents in Freedom Kilombo want to make sure that their children are getting an education beyond reading, writing, and mathematics.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s really important that young people \u2013 it would be nice if all young people \u2013 were able to see the contributions of Africans and African descendants in all subject areas. One very easy thing we do, even when teaching math, (is) we\u2019ll talk about Black mathematicians. I even organized a series of Black engineers who spoke to (the students),\u201d Mitchell- Walthour explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s really important for them to see \u2013 of course there are Black engineers! It\u2019s important for them to know that anything is possible. If you want to be an engineer, you can be an engineer. If you want to be a scientist, you can be a scientist. But in a school, they\u2019re not going to necessarily get there. If we were teaching a curriculum void of that, they\u2019re not going to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why, she added, it\u2019s important that her group intentionally showcases the contributions of Black scientists, scholars, writers, and more, so that seeing Black people in those professions becomes normalized for the students.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, Mitchell-Walthour has also made sure that the students of Freedom Kilombo are introduced to the abundant educational opportunities around Milwaukee, including at 51ÁÔÆæ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe visited the (51ÁÔÆæ Library) Archives; we visited the American Geographical Society Library. If 51ÁÔÆæ had African dance (classes or events) we would bring the kids there,\u201d Mitchell- Walthour said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also invited one of her own graduate students to teach a class on African masks to the group \u2013 a lesson met with great enthusiasm \u2013 and even brought the kids to tour 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Connected Systems Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pass this building all the time, and I\u2019m like, oh my gosh \u2013 there are robots in there! I was super excited,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n
Mitchell-Walthour chose to begin homeschooling her daughter, now 8 years old, about four years ago after her child faced racism and sexism at two different preschools. Being a part of Freedom Kilombo has let Mitchell- Walthour\u2019s daughter gain some excellent educational opportunities alongside kids who look like her.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter is in a lot of activities. She\u2019s usually the only Black girl,\u201d Mitchell-Walthour noted. \u201cShe takes Mandarin; she\u2019s the only Black girl. She takes violin; she\u2019s the only Black girl. I could go on and on. \u2026 At least in her (homeschool) learning experience, she won\u2019t have to be the only. She\u2019ll be there with other Black children.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes the grant will allow more Black students around the Milwaukee area to get the same opportunities with the same classmates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want other people who may not have the same resources to be able to (access this learning),\u201d Mitchell-Walthour said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want people to feel like, I don\u2019t have the money so I can\u2019t be involved. \u2026 There should really be no barriers of entry to learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gladys Mitchell-Walthour is an associate professor and the chair of the African and African Diaspora Studies Department, but it\u2019s her teaching outside of 51ÁÔÆæ that just landed her a $10,000 grant. Mitchell-Walthour is a member of a group of Black …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28112,"featured_media":17798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1734],"tags":[1852],"class_list":["post-17791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus-2022","tag-february"],"yoast_head":"\n