Lawmakers soon will consider LD 422: An Act To Include the Study of Franco-American History in the System of Learning Results sponsored by Auburn Rep. Brian Bolduc.
Why the need for this legislation? If I had been given one book as a young girl, “Calico Bush” by Rachel Field, my entire life would have been changed. I now use that book in my course on Franco-American women I teach online for the University of Maine. How wonderful it would have been back in my girl days to have seen myself reflected in print.
Teaching, in regard to the above legislation, has to do with relevancy of the materials taught. How to attach cultural learning to something beyond the classroom so that the material taught becomes relevant? To make the learning relevant means attaching the learning to individuals and their communities — the many communities we all occupy, and how the continental, not just the U.S. corridor, histories are all connected. Teach to undo the long-held belief that there are no French here in many communities, and to put the knowledge forward about the French heritage history hidden in plain sight.
The entire community a child occupies will need to be educated. And, it will take a child to raise a community. It will take a child to raise awareness about the relevance of the French heritage population on this geography. It will take a child to bring understanding to communities about the long-held, silent, but public beliefs against, and about, the French heritage population.
Relevancy of the learning to be taught is key to the success of the LD 422 initiative to undo the prejudices of the previous generations.
If asked, most could not tell you why they are against the French. Most do not know the distant events that have shaped their opinions. This bill will address the silence, and the silencings, of the French heritage histories. (as will the sister legislation, LD 357, An Act To Require the Teaching of Acadian History as Part of Maine History). This bill will begin a domino effect.
Schools, libraries, historical societies, newspapers, magazines, book publishing, radio, television, etc. will all follow the lead, because with this legislation, the mode of addressing the French heritage will change. The unspoken, hushed, unconscious, subconscious beliefs of prejudice against the French no longer will hold sway. The new cool will be to know who you are, and who your ancestors are in your communities, and it will take L.D. 422 and the children to make the difference in their communities.
We all are from somewhere, someone, in some point in time to arrive at our present communities. Who we are in those communities is shaped by our past and our present. The knowledge often missing is who we are-were in our pasts; this lack of knowledge shapes our present-day selves in our communities. What often holds sway in communities is a sense of “this is how we do things here,” without the historical anchors to inform the present.
Many have heard that the KKK marched against the French in Maine. You weren’t there, you think to yourself, so why is that relevant today? I challenge the notion that the effect of that one element, the KKK, is not felt today in our present-day communities. I believe strongly we all live out the legacy of the KKK in our modern-day policies — not as a conscious act, but as one that has become part of the social fabric of our communities. To that fabric, add the rules — formal and informal — forbidding French to be spoken in many public places, the French jokes, the “you must be French, you talk with your hands,” or “you have an accent,” or the French in Maine is not a real French, a slang French, a patois, a dialect. Lies told about the language ad nauseam added up are all sly commentaries, which amounts to subtle ethnic cleansing. Add to that the erasure of the French heritage culture and history from the archives of most towns in their historical societies, registers, etc. — the French contributions not seen fit to be collected over the years — and you have generations deep, entrenched, community-sanctioned prejudices.
LD 422, and the sister legislation, LD 357, can help to begin to address some of these issues. The domino effect can begin to topple the accumulated prejudices against the French presence on the North American continent.
The bill will foster a new generation of informed citizens.
Rhea Cote Robbins lives in Brewer and is author of “Wednesday’s Child,” a memoir about growing up Franco-American in Maine.