RAINBOW EDUCATION BLACK HISTORY MONTH IDEAL SETTING FOR DIVERSITY LESSONS.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

NORTH HILLS - For a few brief moments, fourth-graders at Noble Avenue Elementary School were too enchanted by Ella Fitzgerald's voice to speak.

They snapped their fingers and bopped their heads as the jazz song ``Cotton Tail'' filled the classroom. But as soon as the song ended, a little boy blurted out: ``That's when blacks were segregated?''

At Noble Elementary, Fitzgerald's music, as well as that of Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles, is being used to teach students about prominent African-Americans and to celebrate Black History Month.

``We listen to something new and we open the horizons,'' teacher Sylvia White told her students. ``You have to learn to appreciate other people's contributions.''

Across the Los Angeles Unified School District, children are hearing morning announcements, writing essays and putting on skits this month to spotlight contributions African-Americans have made to math, science, literature, athletics, culture and civil rights.

While the district doesn't mandate a curriculum for Black History Month, administrators encourage its celebration and tell teachers not to put the topic back on a shelf when the month ends.

``If we're doing this correctly, it should be an everyday experience - not just in February but from July to July,'' said Merle Price, LAUSD deputy superintendent for instruction.

Educators hope that reworking the curriculum to regularly include lessons that are relevant to African-American, Hispanic and Asian cultures will grab students' attention and ultimately help close the achievement gaps that have plagued the district.

``We're in a crisis situation as far as test scores and test-taking,'' said Fluke Fluker, a Cleveland High School teacher. ``It's important we all step up and do what we need to do to save this generation.''

At Cleveland High School in Reseda, a small learning community called the Village was launched two months ago to provide a forum for African- American teachers to mentor students.

During the lunchtime sessions, students study African-American history and talk about the social pressures they face. The 60 students who participate are hungry for this type of attention and information, Fluker said.

``It's hard to talk to kids about manifest destiny when they are at school on an empty stomach, when they are going through a war zone to get to school,'' he said. ``You have to meet them where they're at and then bring them to where you might want to bring them.''

This a belief held by district leaders, as well. Teaching guides are currently being written so that subjects such as math, science and language arts will include lessons relevant to African-Americans, Price said.

``We will want to feature in each unit of instruction the contributions of African-Americans or Latinos to show that science is not just the domain of the Anglo scientists,'' Price said. ``Learning is building upon the knowledge the kids already have. Too often in education, we have failed to connect to that.''

That type of connection was made when 9-year-old Edgar Lopez, an avid baseball fan, heard the story of Jackie Robinson, the first player to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Lopez, a fourth-grader at Plummer Elementary School in North Hills, was hungry to learn more and is devouring another book about Robinson.

``They didn't treat him well, and that made me emotional,'' Lopez explained.

Students at Plummer are also learning about Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a pioneer in performing open-heart surgery, and Garrett Morgan, who invented the traffic signal.

Plummer teacher Tonya Gudino, who's preparing her students for a Black History Month celebration, said students are also drawn to the stories that include details of slavery and segregation.

Discrimination wasn't reserved for just African-Americans, and learning about it can teach students of all colors important lessons about equal treatment, she said.

``It's not just about black Americans,'' she said. ``I talk to them about it and I make vivid examples.''

Students are also discussing the importance of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. The children say they understand that those people's actions changed the course of their lives. ``If they wouldn't have done that, our lives would have been a disaster,'' said Chris Sandoval, 11, a fifth-grader at Blythe Street School in Reseda.

Added Marco A. Balcazar, 10: ``I think it was good that MLK had a dream and that white and black people could get along so we could have a better education and learn more about this. I think all these people were really brave for doing what they believed in.''

At Blythe Street, fifth-graders will be presenting a skit to other classes detailing the lives of leaders such as author and poet Maya Angelou and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Students can learn about more than just race by studying prominent African-Americans, Blythe teacher Robert Hill said. They can learn to be persistent, to use their strengths and to follow their dreams, he said.

``Character transcends color lines,'' Hill said. ``That's the main thing to focus on.''

When Sylvia White nears the end of her lessons on African-American musicians, she said, she will tell her class about how Latino-Americans adapted jazz music. She will also play Ray Charles music, which tends to be the children's favorite.

White said music was a great way to teach the history of one ethnic group in a district as culturally diverse as LAUSD, which is about 75 percent Hispanic, 12 percent African-American and 9 percent white.

She said the music is also a wonderful way for her children, more than 90 percent of whom are Hispanic, to learn English and to understand a piece of America's past.

``They may not speak English, but they were born in America and this is part of their heritage,' she said.

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

9 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Blythe Street School teacher Robert Hill helps his fifth-grade students with their essays on African-American leaders.

(2) Fourth-graders in Sylvia White's class at Noble Elementary School, above, learn about jazz for Black History Month.

(3) Essays are part of Black History Month at Blythe Street School.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(4) Mary McLeod Bethune 

(5) George Washington Carver

(6) Percy Lavon Julian 

(7) Ralph Bunche

(8) Matthew A. Henson

(9) Garrett Morgan

Box:

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SOURCE: Learning Magazine and biographies

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist