How should history be taught in public education

[RetiredGySgt]

The earth is 6,000 years old.

Vaccines cause autism.

Trickle down works.

How do I know? Republicans told me.

6% baby, 6%

Hate to break it to you but your lefty buddies think vaccines cause autism and the republicans do not believe the earth is 6000 years old dumb ass.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Those who think vaccines cause autism are neither right nor left, just dopey.

 

[Redfish]

Your posts validate the inadequacy of our educational system. You are a VICTIM of leftist propaganda.

There is no agenda with history, it is what it is. When you lying leftists attempt to revise history you damage the nation and the future of our children and grandchildren-----------------------TELL THE TRUTH. The good and the bad. The truth will set you free from your leftist indoctrination. You are no better than a kid who has been indoctrinated in muslim hate in a madrassa.

Your extremism makes me seem liberal, when in fact your distortion of fact and narrative is the cause for your misperception.

Compared to you, I am far better educated, certainly more knowledgeable how the world works, and very successful in business, and now that I am retired, I am comfortable, content, and happy.

I know it sux to be you, but you earned it.

Nice try, but you failed once again Jake (or RW). I am far from extreme, I am middle of the road leaning slightly right. You are a far left zealot and brainwashed idiot.

As to education and success. I will match you any day on that. MBA from Harvard, very successful in the corporate world and then a self employed manufacturer's rep in several international markets. I know how the world works from personal experience. You merely repeat what you are given by your left wing handlers. Comfort and content reveal themselves in the narrative of each individual. I am comfortable in who and what I am, you, however, are desperate to put forth lies and misinformation in a failed attempt to convince just one person that your liberal agenda is good for this country.

What makes me even more happy is watching your liberal bullshit collapse in front of you. You fools elected obama twice, he has set your cause back 100 years. The american people are much smarter than you, obozo, pelosi, reid, sharpton, jackson, gore, clinton, kerry, and all the rest think they are.

 

[Redfish]

Redfish is clearly projecting when he writes, "Jake is a sick human being. Full of hate and lies.."

if telling the truth is projecting, then I plead guilty

 

[Redfish]

Those who think vaccines cause autism are neither right nor left, just dopey.

a rare point of agreement.

 

[Redfish]

Your posts validate the inadequacy of our educational system. You are a VICTIM of leftist propaganda.

There is no agenda with history, it is what it is. When you lying leftists attempt to revise history you damage the nation and the future of our children and grandchildren-----------------------TELL THE TRUTH. The good and the bad. The truth will set you free from your leftist indoctrination. You are no better than a kid who has been indoctrinated in muslim hate in a madrassa.

Your extremism makes me seem liberal, when in fact your distortion of fact and narrative is the cause for your misperception.

Compared to you, I am far better educated, certainly more knowledgeable how the works, and very successful in business, and now that I am retired, I am comfortable, content, and happy.

I know it sux to be you, but you earned it.

Truly life is good for those who work hard, are responsible for themselves, charitable to others, and plan prudently for the future.

True, does the liberal welfare state promote those things?

 

[JakeStarkey]

MBA, blowfish?

Your language prohibits that conclusion.

Your lack of cultural and economic comprehension is obvious.

When you are talking sense, not to worry, I will let you know.

 

[Redfish]

MBA, blowfish?

Your language prohibits that conclusion.

Your lack of cultural and economic comprehension is obvious.

When you are talking sense, not to worry, I will let you know.

everyone on this forum knows that you are a liar and a fraud.

 

[regent]

History should be taught accurately and truthfully. There should be no political bias in history, just the facts.

The real problem is that liberals lie about the facts of history, because the facts do not support their agenda.

First history is not about just "facts".

Second, no one can write an "unbiased" history. The best we can do is be aware for our biases and try to correct for them.

Third, most of the "junk history" of the last 50 years comes from the right, from Holocaust deniers to Southern revisionists, to American exceptionalists.

I would recommend Jim Loewen's "Lies my Teach Told Me", if you want an academically reputable treatment of the subject of teaching history.

Are you crazy? HIstory IS facts. Facts have no agenda. History should be taught as it actually happened, not as anyone wishes it had been.

The purpose of teaching history is so that we can learn from it and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

As to your stupid comment about 'junk history', historical revisionists are mostly left wingers and members of the teachers union, they are not teaching history, they are trying to indoctrinate liberal bullshit philosophy into young brains.

The holocaust happened, slavery happened, America is an exceptional nation. And you are full of shit.

the fact that jake snarkey disagrees with this post validates the accuracy of it.

 

[rdean]

The earth is 6,000 years old.

Vaccines cause autism.

Trickle down works.

How do I know? Republicans told me.

6% baby, 6%

^ Exhibit A: Why we must totally reform our educational system

Exactly.

It's foolish to believe the earth is only 6,000 years old.

There is no evidence Vaccines cause autism.

Trickle down is laughable. So is calling "Supply and Demand" a wild liberal theory.

If you believe that evolution is a lie, climate change a conspiracy and science a faith, it's unlikely you will be a scientist.

 

[rdean]

History should be taught accurately and truthfully. There should be no political bias in history, just the facts.

The real problem is that liberals lie about the facts of history, because the facts do not support their agenda.

First history is not about just "facts".

Second, no one can write an "unbiased" history. The best we can do is be aware for our biases and try to correct for them.

Third, most of the "junk history" of the last 50 years comes from the right, from Holocaust deniers to Southern revisionists, to American exceptionalists.

I would recommend Jim Loewen's "Lies my Teach Told Me", if you want an academically reputable treatment of the subject of teaching history.

Are you crazy? HIstory IS facts. Facts have no agenda. History should be taught as it actually happened, not as anyone wishes it had been.

The purpose of teaching history is so that we can learn from it and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

As to your stupid comment about 'junk history', historical revisionists are mostly left wingers and members of the teachers union, they are not teaching history, they are trying to indoctrinate liberal bullshit philosophy into young brains.

The holocaust happened, slavery happened, America is an exceptional nation. And you are full of shit.

the fact that jake snarkey disagrees with this post validates the accuracy of it.

It's easy to twist the facts. White conservatives fled the Democratic Party in the late 60's and joined the GOP after blacks joined the Democratic Party. Yet, right here on the USMB, you have white Republican confederate conservatives swearing they ended slavery. Where are they getting their history from?

 

[regent]

The history in the public and private schools below college level, is pretty much decided by politicians. The politicians write the curriculum, select the textbooks and so forth. That part is all political but what you have offsetting the politicians and their versions of history are a number of teachers that learned their history at the university level and teach using the university source for their history.
What is difficult to hide from the more able students is that America has grown more liberal over the years, no matter the politicians, textbooks or other, we have only to observe history as it is occurring.
A question I have asked a few times, but is never answered, does history make one more liberal or do only liberals become historians?

 

[JakeStarkey]

everyone on this forum knows that you are a liar and a fraud.

Says the man talking to the mirror.

 

[gipper]

This explains it well....

My point was that typically history, the recent (journalism) or the far past, is usually written by the court historians who whitewash government crimes and essentially are propaganda tools; but there are some histories, no matter what the conclusions might be, that do honestly convey the facts. Attempting to follow those facts and come to true conclusions about historical situations and actors is known as historical revisionism. As can be inferred from what I wrote above about who writes the history, historical revisionism is inherently anti-state....
How To Be an Historical Revisionist – LewRockwell.com

History taught in government schools will almost ALWAYS be wrong and will promote the state.

 

[guno]

Republicans throw a conniption over the teaching of U.S. history - LA Times

The latest right wing attack on the teaching of US history is wholly ideological

Does the AP US history course exclude Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, as rightwingers maintain? Nope.

The control of teaching history controls how the citizens view themselves and their country's past in the flow of time.

I have no problem with a factual description of our past: it allows us to celebrate the good and hopefully correct the errors as we go forward.

We should also teach labor history

 

[JakeStarkey]

I see that the far right reactionaries are in full denial this fine day.

 

[namvet]

history is being taught in schools. libtard history that is

 

[oldfart]

The history in the public and private schools below college level, is pretty much decided by politicians. The politicians write the curriculum, select the textbooks and so forth. That part is all political but what you have offsetting the politicians and their versions of history are a number of teachers that learned their history at the university level and teach using the university source for their history.
What is difficult to hide from the more able students is that America has grown more liberal over the years, no matter the politicians, textbooks or other, we have only to observe history as it is occurring.
A question I have asked a few times, but is never answered, does history make one more liberal or do only liberals become historians?

OK, first a plug. You should really read Loewen's book. He is the expert on the sociology of historical textbook writing for schools and the adoption process, and the resulting distortions in what is taught. He also was my division head many moons ago.

History writing at the level of college teaching and professional publication is all over the political spectrum and doesn't show a real political trend in any direction, in my observation. It does have some pretty quirky fashions and trends.

High school level textbooks have seemed to have a liberal trend because good history is slowly driving out bad history. For example, history texts of 50 years ago were much bigger on biography of famous men, and those biographies amounted to hagiography. Now texts are more likely to ascribe less influence to the actions of individuals and more to generalized trends engaged in by larger parts of society. Was the conquest of polio the result of the personal characteristics of Drs Sauk and Sabine, or did it have more to do with a national committment to medical research? Maybe the real hero of that episode was FDR, whose example of the ravages of the disease triggered the public support for the research.

Everybody becomes a historian. When you check my post on the goals of history upthread, you may notice I don't have any sweeping generalizations of learning from the past or other comments that support ideological approaches to history. I personally have met very few historians whose basic ideological framework changed as a result of doing history. What has changed is the norms for writing history. More emphasis is being placed on how people lived and interacted and less on dates and figures.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Where ever possible and practical, history lessons should be taught from the perspective of everyone involved. Like if WWII teach the AMerican pov, British, Russian, German, Japanese, French, Italian, etc. Not just the victors' nor just the losers, but everyone's. When everyone agrees on things that's the truth, when people disagree significantly, that's the propaganda.

 

[Redfish]

History is history, it should be taught as it actually happened, no conclusions, no agendas, no bias. Teach our kids what happened in the past. Let them learn from it. Let them draw their own conclusions regarding right and wrong.

That is a very scary idea for the leftists. They know that if they cannot steer the conclusions then they will lose the debate----every time.