Ravenna City Schools’ former Superintendent Dennis Honkala and the Portage County NAACP have teamed up to add more civil rights education to the curriculum by purchasing 250 social justice coloring books to use in the 2021 school year.
The alphabet books, with blank pages for coloring, give teachers and young children a fun way to discuss important social justice concepts, school leaders said.
The school district will include the coloring books in the curriculum for preschool and kindergarten classrooms.
“We have been working for over a year now looking at our curriculum and making sure it is a diverse curriculum and representative of all the races and cultures and ethnicities,” Honkola said. “This is just a small piece of the puzzle but very helpful nonetheless.”
Some of the ideas the book covers include: making social justice visible, community building, working together, respecting differences, valuing the environment and taking care of one’s self.
For instance, one page says, “F is for Fight for the rights of everyone.”
Jihad Dennis, an artist and writer based in Akron, illustrated the book. He collaborated with Portage County NAACP Vice President Renee Romine, who developed the concepts covered in the book.
“I think anything we can do to ensure that the students of our district have opportunities to engage in educational practices that help them feel more comfortable with themselves, whoever they are, is important,” said Laura Hebert, who took over as Ravenna superintendent on Aug. 1.
The district’s curriculum director is working with the teachers to decide how to integrate the coloring books into their lessons.
Gina Schlegel is a Portager contributor. Contact her at [email protected].