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Robert macdonald's avatar

Needs to be said, again and again. Until recently teaching American History, as you say, emphasized the heroism of white people and it’s no wonder that most of us grew up believing in some form of white superiority. To undo this misinformation is extremely difficult. And now as teaching began to be more racially inclusive, it is being peeled back. The teaching of the young is the foundation of a civil society.

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Edward Woodhouse's avatar

Well said, as always, but one caution: You sometimes sound as if school curricula would be pretty close to fine if it weren't for the Republican anti-woke patrol. As you know, however, neither history nor any other subject is designed, taught, and learned very well in most schools much of the time. Chemistry doesn't teach that organic chemicals can be redesigned to be green; World War I and Vietnam get short shrift, while WW II is glorified as if there were no intelligent case against US entry; math fails to engage a substantial majority by high school; many graduate without writing a poem or short story. The list of shortcomings is long and deep. So I invite progressives to figure out how to talk about all that rather than focusing too much on Republican threats.

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