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.
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.
Thanks for this. People need to be reminded about the importance of leaning the truth about our history, as well as scientific truths, or democracy is totally at risk. I am not hopeful, given what we see around us. But it is so good to see the truth and common sense put out there!
Thank you for what you do. Please keep doing it. I feel the effort is futile however, and as an octogenarian my observation is we are too selfish and self-centered a cultured to change. It will take, in my view, a cataclysmic event to change us. We can not even acknowledge our historical truth. I am inclined to feel more like Chris Hedges. We are at the beginning of the end of the empire. Sad we had such promise.
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.
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.
Thanks for this. People need to be reminded about the importance of leaning the truth about our history, as well as scientific truths, or democracy is totally at risk. I am not hopeful, given what we see around us. But it is so good to see the truth and common sense put out there!
Thank you for what you do. Please keep doing it. I feel the effort is futile however, and as an octogenarian my observation is we are too selfish and self-centered a cultured to change. It will take, in my view, a cataclysmic event to change us. We can not even acknowledge our historical truth. I am inclined to feel more like Chris Hedges. We are at the beginning of the end of the empire. Sad we had such promise.
The karmic retribution of this whitewashing (literally and figuratively) will be massive. And well-deserved.