Education For Life Academy
Where Black History Lives!
About Us
The Education for Life Academy (EFLA) is dedicated to the dissemination and celebration of the history and culture of people of African descent. Our mission is to bring the history of Africa and the African Diaspora out of obscurity and into the classrooms and homes of Black people the world over, and the public at large. In this quest EFLA has developed the first comprehensive online Africana Studies curriculum – the "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" Black History curriculum.
As educators, our charge is twofold: 1) to present empirical data and primary source evidence related to the history and culture of Black people and 2) to counter the mis-education and bias that continue to shape mainstream curricula.
Ultimately, we at the Education for Life Academy believe that education is a life-long pursuit. We believe that education must serve a purpose beyond a diploma or a degree – it must provide enlightenment and be relevant to our own experiences. If it is to have a larger societal benefit education must embrace truth and broaden our worldview so that we can appreciate ourselves as well as other cultures and ideas. It is with this philosophy that we have developed our Standing on the Shoulders of Giants curriculum.
Why We Exist
Host Chinta Strausberg and guest Arkee Hodges discuss the Chicago Public Schools upcoming Black History Curriculum and how it will impact CPS students.
During slavery Black people were told, “Africans had no history;” that Black people were inferior to whites in mind and body, and thus destined to be slaves forever. After slavery, “the thought of the inferiority of the Negro was drilled into him in almost every class he entered and in almost every book he studied,” noted Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the widely acclaimed “Father of Black History.” Dr. Woodson understood then what we have come to understand today,
descent. Recent developments in the U.S. show a disturbing trend: conservative revisions to textbooks and the banning of books and Ethnic Studies courses in places like North Carolina, Texas and Arizona reflect the ideologies that continue to shape school curricula as well as the continuous assault on multicultural education.
We fail Black children everyday when we send them to school to learn everything about everyone else and nothing about their own history and culture. We fail children of all backgrounds when we avoid teaching about race and the diversity of the human experience. Studies have shown that a culturally grounded school curriculum improves self-image among Black students as well as academic performance across other subjects. Undoubtedly, the biased curricula in mainstream school systems is a major source of alienation, withdrawal, academic failure and anti-black racism. We have seen the costs of miseducation. This is why we exist.
Now is the perfect time to engage our young people in a critical examination of Black history and culture. The high school dropout rate, school closings, escalating violence, racism in social media and politics, and dwindling numbers of teachers of color are clear signs that we are currently facing a crisis of epic proportions. Our curriculum won't solve these problems in isolation, but we are certain that we have designed a relevant Black history curriculum that is thoroughly engaging, enlightening and transformative.
“Those who have no record of what their forbearers have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of the history of their people."
Today our young people are still exposed to a school curriculum that minimizes Africa in world history and omits the vast contributions of people of African
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