CVU students advocate for women’s history to be required learning

Champlain Valley Union High School students advocate for women’s history to be required learning

Announcement

A student-led group at Champlain Valley Union High School is working to make women’s history a mandatory part of the curriculum in Vermont schools, while also expanding their efforts globally.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. —

Students at Champlain Valley Union High School are leading efforts to make women’s history required learning in Vermont schools, addressing what they see as a significant gap in education.

Amelie Fairweather, a senior at CVU, said the idea for the organization, Her Education Required (H.E.R.), came to her during her junior year.

“I was just sitting in my social studies class, and we were doing like a weeklong crash course on different minorities… I sort of was just thinking to myself, I don’t think we ever did women’s history,” Fairweather said.

What began as a once-a-week club has grown into an international nonprofit with 100 chapters across eight countries and more than 1,000 participants.

“We ran a survey through the student body, and we’ve now done that at five other high schools here in Vermont [the survey] very much demonstrated the lack of women’s history,” Fairweather said. “I mean, people thought like a suffragist was a point in time. They thought it was women who choose to suffer. There was like very few responses that actually [knew] what it was.”

Now in her senior year, Fairweather said the organization is collaborating with school officials and local leaders to make women’s history a required part of education in schools.

Announcement

“Their goal is to have a dedicated course that every student has to take,” said Stacy Wulff, a social studies teacher at CVU. “Because we do have women’s history involved. I know I teach it in my 10th grade year. I teach it in my 11th grade year. And so the idea is that it’s being taught in some of the classes, but it’s not consistent across the board.”

The Vermont Agency of Education stated that while it cannot mandate schools to offer a specific women’s history course, it can strengthen the state’s social studies standards to ensure women’s history is included in various classes.

“Act 73 asked that we establish a set of statewide graduation requirements,” said Erin Davis, chief academic officer for the Vermont Agency of Education. “And if we think of that as the finish line of the learning that we want for all of our students [to] have had access to before they leave our schools, that presents a real opportunity aligned with the work that H.E.R. is engaging in.”

While the state explores this opportunity, H.E.R. is already expanding its initiatives. This academic year, the group launched a scholarship fund offering up to $10,000 in need-based aid. They also started an educational bookmark initiative through their “History by Her” program.

“The consensus is just that women’s history is part of human history, and it should be taught,” Fairweather said.

Wulff said the students’ efforts are a valuable lesson in the work required to create change.

Announcement

“They want this to be taught, but they’re becoming a piece of their own story and realizing that the world doesn’t just snap and become what you want it to be, but also realizing that it is doable still,” Wulff said.