The Moral Courage Project: Lessons from Ferguson

High school teachers across the country now have access to a free curriculum that encourages their students to discuss race identity, biases and movements toward justice.

The seven lessons in the Ferguson Voices curriculum build on the multi-media exhibit created in 2017 by students in UD’s Moral Courage Project. The exhibit shares the experiences of those in Ferguson, Missouri, who were touched by the Aug. 10, 2014, fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police and the unrest that followed. Lesson one, “Starting a Dialogue,” encourages respectful discussion within the classroom about sensitive, difficult and controversial topics.

“The radical shift in conversations around race and racism in the wake of last summer’s protest movement helped guide us to choose the topics and main ideas of our curriculum.”

Two education majors, seniors Corey Rinella and Megan McCarren, worked with faculty in human rights and teacher education to adapt the exhibit into lessons for students in grades nine through 12. While the curriculum is written to meet Ohio state teaching standards, it is available for all high school teachers and has tips for both in-person and online instruction.

Rinella and McCarren said the widespread protests of 2020 helped spotlight for them the need for such lessons. “The radical shift in conversations around race and racism in the wake of last summer’s protest movement helped guide us to choose the topics and main ideas of our curriculum,” they wrote.

The curriculum is available at bit.ly/UDM_FergusonVoicesLesson.