Ashley Thorne of the National Association of Scholars reports on a new trend in education.

“Teaching” Ferguson

A new hashtag is trending on Twitter for the second time this fall—the first was in August shortly after police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. This time the hashtag’s prominence comes as a response to the announcement Monday night of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson.

“I am quelling my anger by taking refuge in the #FergusonSyllabus tag. Education is power,” tweeted a library and technology teacher from Chicago. “Thinking of how to channel my tears, disappointment, and profound anger into solidarity & activism in research & teaching #FergusonSyllabus” wrote a PhD student at Indiana University. One high school teacher, whose courses are in “human geography,” said she had “Scrapped today’s lesson plan to talk about Ferguson. Thanks to the #fergusonsyllabus for ideas.”

Though it’s being referred to with a definite article, there is no one particular “Ferguson syllabus.” Rather, a set of groups, including the New York Times Learning Network, the National Education Association, and The Atlantic, are offering what they call “resources” for bringing the lessons of the Michael Brown case to their classrooms.

Michael Brown’s death was untimely and unfortunate. So is the racial unrest that should no longer afflict this country, but does. Clearly we are in the midst of a long and painful racial misunderstanding. It is right to ask, “can’t we learn anything from this?”

The shapers of the Ferguson syllabus concept think so. But the lessons are limited; for instance, this isn’t a time to talk about the importance of weighing evidence in pursuit of the truth. As with much of the media maelstrom swirling around this story, most of which included “white police officer” and “black unarmed teenager” in reporting, the main thing in #Fergusonsyllabus is the perpetuation of one narrative: racism in America. It is a narrative in no danger of neglect in our schools, and not the only relevant one in this story.