Sep 25, 2026 · 50 min · 12 segments
In 2021, Illinois passed a law requiring every public elementary and high school teach a unit of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. Five years later, many schools have yet to fully implement…
Hi, Mr. Johnson.
I'm at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, in the northern Chicago suburbs.
So big that every year, teacher Wylene Singh will practice her route through the school when she receives her new class schedule.
I like to check out my next year's classrooms before the summer starts just so that I can get an idea of what I'm going into.
She teaches Chinese language classes and Asian American literature at Niles West.
She saw a window after the passage of the TEACH Act and proposed the class.
Our main gym is here.
This
We are setting a new standard for what it means to truly reckon with our history.
Illinois Representative Jennifer Gongershowitz was the bill's House sponsor.
Gongershowitz says the momentum for the bill was prompted largely by high-profile cases of anti-Asian hate crimes.
In 2021, a mass shooting at several Atlanta area spas killed eight people, including six Asian women.
Invisibility is a form of discrimination because what it tells Asian American students is your history doesn't matter.
It's not relevant.
It's not as important as other individuals who have shaped this nation.
You internalize that invisibility.
Gon Gershowitz says after the bill signing, the work of putting it into action in schools began.
Hi, Mr. Johnson.
I'm at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, in the northern Chicago suburbs.
So big that every year, teacher Wylene Singh will practice her route through the school when she receives her new class schedule.
I like to check out my next year's classrooms before the summer starts just so that I can get an idea of what I'm going into.
She teaches Chinese language classes and Asian American literature at Niles West.
She saw a window after the passage of the TEACH Act and proposed the class.
Our main gym is here.
This
We are setting a new standard for what it means to truly reckon with our history.
Illinois Representative Jennifer Gongershowitz was the bill's House sponsor.
Gongershowitz says the momentum for the bill was prompted largely by high-profile cases of anti-Asian hate crimes.
In 2021, a mass shooting at several Atlanta area spas killed eight people, including six Asian women.
Invisibility is a form of discrimination because what it tells Asian American students is your history doesn't matter.
It's not relevant.
It's not as important as other individuals who have shaped this nation.
You internalize that invisibility.
Gon Gershowitz says after the bill signing, the work of putting it into action in schools began.
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