So much I don't know...

[kpete]

This:

[Wounded Bear]

1. K & R...nt

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. K and R

[Sinistrous]

3. K & R

[lark]

4. I had a great social studies teacher in 7th grade, he showed us the full truth & opened our eyes.

He was always in trouble with the Principal and was the most fun and thought provoking teacher I ever had. He literally changed my life, opening the mind of this totally indoctrinated Southern Baptist pre-teen to the class struggle going on in America. Going to school here (NE FL) in the 60's, there was no pretense that slavery didn't start the war. The others teachers would tell us about "states rights", but would also say it was the right to keep slaves that was at issue. Wonder when the truth stopping being taught?

[Ohioboy]

5. K & R

[BelieveCassandra]

6. Hated history in high school (and that was a long time ago)!

Even in the 70's the history books were so dumbed-down and boring. My take away as a high school student was that history, as taught by the basketball coach, was unimportant, biased, not accurate, and a waste of time. Later on I stumbled across Barbara Tuchman and other historians who made history relevant; I have been fascinated by it every since.

[wnylib]

15. Same here. My history classes

were boring, mostly about battles, when they occurred, and who won. I had an American history teacher in 11th grade who spent most of every class talking about himself, his student days, and his children. Then at the end of class, he would give us a memorization homework assignment, like memorizing all the of the US presidents in order.

I got exasperated and challenged him to actually teach something about the time period and each administration. His response was that he was teaching us to use our minds with memorization homework. He said the mind is a muscle that needs exercise. I countered that the mind is not muscle but a network of neurons. The bell rang then. Nothing changed.

I discovered history later, first from historical novelists like James Michener and Leon Uris, then learned about Barbara Tuchmann. When I got involved in genealogy, I learned more about history than in any high school or college course. Tracing one family branch to New England Puritans and their British ancestors led me to read up on the religious movements in Britain, the British civil war(s) and dynasties, the customs carried over to the American colonies, the early American colonists, early slavery in the North, the Revolution, etc.

I already knew something about my Native ancestors from my family, but learned more about them through reading, visits to the reservation, and online records where I found photos of some Native ancestral relatives.

I already knew from my uncle and grandfather about why my maternal great grandparents left the German Empire as political refugees, but read up on the period and the movement that they were part of. That led to more reading of German history back to the tribes that invaded Rome. I understood better the background setting for Nazi Germany and how nationalism and racism can lead to the destruction of democratic governments.

Most of that should have been taught in schools.

[niyad]

7. From "Lies Our Teachers Told Us" to Howard Zinn's "A People's History" to Roxanne

Dunbar-Ortiz' "An Indigenous People's History", to ""The History of Women Suffrrage" to the Women's History Museum, it is clear that so-called "history classes" in this country are little more than white patriarchy's propaganda. I did a lot of reading outside the classroom, but still did not even come close to learning any of the truth. (I remember an old joke. "Of course you did well in history when you were young. There was so much less of it. &quot

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. The entire school system

is little more than propaganda. And, it has succeeded in creating a mess that has culminated with the MAGA and evangelical faithful. People who are so buried in the propaganda that they cannot see the truth and prefer the delusions that they are desperate to keep in their minds. (Mainly because these delusions place those who want them at the top of the socio-political pile.)

[Lonestarblue]

8. We need a serious revamping of our curriculum.

I spent my career in education, and it saddens me to see its condition today, not only in controversial areas like social studies and science but also in mathematics and literature. There’s a reason the test prep industry was created and has become so large. Forbes reported back in 2020 that parents/students spent over a billion dollars on test prep in 2019. Some of that spending is for good students who want a competitive edge, but some is also for kids who are struggling, especially in mathematics. So now we have an industry created to teach what the public schools didn’t, yet no one seems to think it necessary to look at public school curriculum! Of course, there are many factors in education that hamper learning, not just the curriculum. Given our current direction, I just see less and less education and more and more ignorant adults who have no understanding of the past, cannot think for themselves, and will fall victim to the charlatans of the world.

[brush]

9. Good post. Your last sentence is especially spot on.

[OldBaldy1701E]

20. Well

When your model is 'memorization and recitation', this is what you get. Idiots with good memories. It is no wonder that most of the good teachers that I knew left the profession, or got lucky and went to one of the more international schools. There seems to be a little of the original goal of schooling, which was to teach kids how to learn. Not to regurgitate facts without knowing how to apply them.

[seta1950]

10. Exactly

If we don’t teach history as it happened, we are doomed.

[geardaddy]

11. Great post

I had some decent history teachers in Minneapolis, that did mention slavery as the cause of the Civil War, but failed to talk about the US - Dakota War as anything but the Sioux Uprising.

[SoonerPride]

12. which is why critical race theory freaks the reich wing out so much

they never want the masses to know the full story.

"they call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

[spanone]

13. K&R

[ChazII]

14. Excellent post

and thank you for sharing it.

[FakeNoose]

16. Public high school teachers cannot teach these things because they'd be fired

Our high school history and civics classes were strictly controlled, whether we (as students) realized it or not. Our teachers wanted to teach us these things in many cases, but they were prevented by administrators and School Board review.

Any time a "liberal-thinking" teacher mentioned political history or racial sensitivity, and a student went home and told his parents what he/she learned in school - it was usually parents who went on a rampage. Angry parents would alert the School Board, complain to the principal, and get THAT teacher sanctioned or fired.

We shouldn't kid ourselves, and we shouldn't blame the teachers. In many cases our teachers had their hands tied, even as far back as the 1950's and 60's. I can only speak of public and Catholic diocese schools, I had no experience in private schools, but I'd have difficulty believing they were any more liberal.

[OldBaldy1701E]

21. Most are worse.

I spent a decade working at a private school. It was Catholic, but was considered pretty 'liberal'. (It used to be known as the 'wild child' of the diocese.) They even had students from the local university come in to talk about subjects that made the nuns leave the room. Which was pretty astounding to me. (They also hired me, a non-Catholic, which was not as weird, because I was not faculty, but still...) I was very glad to be there, and I kept my mouth shut at first. But, when things got too stupid, I had to speak up and I promptly got fired. As I said above, the modern American school system model is about being able to remember a fact and repeat it. Nothing about applying it to their lives, or why the information is important. No discussions about the reasons behind the need for the subject or anything. Which is why I decided not to try for another position at another school. The same thing would have happened.

[BarbD]

17. Try Parochial school in the 1940's

All of our text books had to have the imprimatur of the Archbishop of Milwaukee. We learned all about the Jesuit missionaries, the first American saint, Mother Cabrini.

But I remember a Currier and Ives book of prints that my mother got from Book of the Month club. The book held two prints of slaves being unloaded on a beach in the South. My curiosity led me to later read James Bladwin, but even though I thought I knew what went on in the South, now at age 83 I just found out about the Tulsa massacre. Just goes to show how knowledge never ends nor does fear and ignorance.

[ShazzieB]

18. 80 times?!

Slavery was mentioned 80 times in the articles of secession?

I mean, I knew it was in there, and I definitely knew it was the reason for the Civil War, but 80 damned times? Sheesh. I need to do some reading!