Sanitizing American History

[depotoo]

Funston knew that this was his last chance. He had attracted far too much attention; his colorful comments had played into the hands of critics of the war, and his headline-grabbing exploits had irritated the regular officers. Time and again he had been told to keep his mouth shut, but every corpuscle in his blood impelled him to the heart of the action and then obliged him to talk about what he had done or seen. The truth of the matter was that Funston had always wanted to be a hero, someone whose martial prowess and courage could determine the outcome of a war: David bringing down Goliath and routing the Philistines; Achilles wading into the Trojans and breaking the siege; Napoleon working his will upon all Europe. His was the dream of boys who play soldier: charging ahead of the others in the teeth of enemy fire; seizing the ramparts and dispatching the enemy; sustaining dreadful (but not disfiguring) wounds; being publicly feted by a grateful nation; and receiving, in private, the adoring ministrations of a beautiful girl. Most men, on easing into manhood, redefine heroism in more prosaic terms: providing for a family despite being laid off; preserving scruples or friendships when to do so is unpopular; walking calmly, at the close of life, toward the abyss. Funston wanted none of this. He craved pristine glory of the classical kind, a glory that the industrial world had nearly blasted into oblivion. He wanted not just to win battles but to reclaim a type of heroism that had already become old-fashioned.

Funston had undertaken such a quest out of fear that he did not measure up. Partly this was because his father had set so daunting a standard. Edward (“Foghorn”) Funston stood six feet two, weighed two hundred pounds, and had a deep, bellowing voice and sharp, scathing tongue. During the Civil War he worked his way through the ranks to become an artillery officer. Afterward he set up a homestead in Kansas, became prominent in Republican circles, and was repeatedly elected to Congress. Nearly always he plunged into whatever fray he could find. At sixty-nine he gave a fiery speech on a street corner and nearly came to blows with a law officer who tried to arrest him for disturbing the peace. Foghorn Funston was an exemplar of late-nineteenth-century manhood.
........
this is an example of one of the author's writings regarding a Colonel in the Phillipine-US war of 1899.

Simple reporting of recorded history is one thing. To add embellishments, and a socialist point of view is another.

There is no sense in leaving ANYTHING out of the teaching of history. History is merely a record of things that happened.

Exactly what do you mean by a "socialist point of view? "Embellishments"?

 

[Czernobog]

The three conservative members of the five-person board want to create a curriculum-review committee to make changes in the College Board’s new framework for Advanced Placement United States History classes. The conservatives claim the course structure contains anti-American bias.

The school board proposal has triggered student walkouts and other protests in several Jefferson County high schools. The students object to the review committee's plan to examine texts and course plans to ensure that they “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect of authority and respect for individual rights” and do not “encourage civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”

The proposal is the work of Julie Williams, one of the board’s conservative members. On her Facebook page, Williams says the College Board’s new curriculum “rejects the history that has been taught in the country for generations. It has an emphasis on race, gender, class, ethnicity, grievance and American-bashing while simultaneously omitting the most basic structural and philosophical elements considered essential to the understanding of American History for generations. Let me give you some examples of who is omitted: Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin with not even a mention of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was on the forefront of the civil rights movement. It ignores lessons on the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address…”

Apparently Williams does not consider the Boston Tea Party an instance of “civil disorder.”​

Sanitizing American History

The Irony here, is that my 15-year-old son not only knows that the purpose of studying history is not to "...promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect of authority and respect for individual rights", while discouraging "...civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”, but that, in fact, one of the most important events in American History - The American Revolution - was just that, an act of civil disorder, and disregard for the law.

How is it that a 15-year-old kid has a better understanding of the purpose of History, and comprehension of actual historical events, than do the adults who are supposed to be responsible for setting the curriculum for our kids? And conservatives claim that the intention of progressives to "indoctrinate" our kids...

You clearly are an idiot and are harping on one tiny point.

Let me give you some examples of who is omitted: Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin with not even a mention of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was on the forefront of the civil rights movement. It ignores lessons on the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address…”


That is skipped? These very important people and events are skipped. Our kids are getting short shafted and taght to hate America.

but you're cool with that cuz you found a loop hole in what she said.

The point is that what she said was, at best, inaccurate, and at worst a lie. One of us here is an idiot, anyway...

 

[Czernobog]

Funston knew that this was his last chance. He had attracted far too much attention; his colorful comments had played into the hands of critics of the war, and his headline-grabbing exploits had irritated the regular officers. Time and again he had been told to keep his mouth shut, but every corpuscle in his blood impelled him to the heart of the action and then obliged him to talk about what he had done or seen. The truth of the matter was that Funston had always wanted to be a hero, someone whose martial prowess and courage could determine the outcome of a war: David bringing down Goliath and routing the Philistines; Achilles wading into the Trojans and breaking the siege; Napoleon working his will upon all Europe. His was the dream of boys who play soldier: charging ahead of the others in the teeth of enemy fire; seizing the ramparts and dispatching the enemy; sustaining dreadful (but not disfiguring) wounds; being publicly feted by a grateful nation; and receiving, in private, the adoring ministrations of a beautiful girl. Most men, on easing into manhood, redefine heroism in more prosaic terms: providing for a family despite being laid off; preserving scruples or friendships when to do so is unpopular; walking calmly, at the close of life, toward the abyss. Funston wanted none of this. He craved pristine glory of the classical kind, a glory that the industrial world had nearly blasted into oblivion. He wanted not just to win battles but to reclaim a type of heroism that had already become old-fashioned.

Funston had undertaken such a quest out of fear that he did not measure up. Partly this was because his father had set so daunting a standard. Edward (“Foghorn”) Funston stood six feet two, weighed two hundred pounds, and had a deep, bellowing voice and sharp, scathing tongue. During the Civil War he worked his way through the ranks to become an artillery officer. Afterward he set up a homestead in Kansas, became prominent in Republican circles, and was repeatedly elected to Congress. Nearly always he plunged into whatever fray he could find. At sixty-nine he gave a fiery speech on a street corner and nearly came to blows with a law officer who tried to arrest him for disturbing the peace. Foghorn Funston was an exemplar of late-nineteenth-century manhood.
........
this is an example of one of the author's writings regarding a Colonel in the Phillipine-US war of 1899.

First, you have evidence is an inaccurate account of this Colonel?

Second you keep talking about "the book", and "the author", as if there is only a single textbook that meets the curriculum's criteria, when in fact there are a plethora of books that do so. Are you suggesting that every single one of these textbooks, from every one of these authors, relates the exact same story?

 

[Czernobog]

True, there is more than one. All it takes is researching one to see what is what. And your list does not jive with the list from the district.

So, you admit that you are judging an entire program from the writings of one textbook, which, by your own admission you haven't even read all of, and which may not even be the textbook used in any given school curriculum.

"All it takes is reading one". That's an awfully arrogant statement to make. Especially since, from your own words, you haven't read one - you have only skimmed it, and cherry picked out some passages you like, or don't like as it were.

 

[georgephillip]

So she wants to teach actual facts and that pisses you off? The Zinn propaganda is important to the dismantling of the Republic and the dissolution of civil rights.

I get it, clearly Julie Williams gets it as well.

What do you know about civil rights that Zinn did not know?

"From 1956 through 1963, Zinn chaired the Department of History and social sciences atSpelman College. He participated in the Civil Rights Movement and lobbied with historianAugust Meier[26] 'to end the practice of the Southern Historical Association of holding meetings at segregated hotels'.[27]

"While at Spelman, Zinn served as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and wrote about sit-ins and other actions by SNCC for The Nation and Harper's.[28]

"In 1964, Beacon Press published his book SNCC: The New Abolitionists[29]

"Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd mentoring student activists, among themAlice Walker,[30] who would later write The Color Purple; and Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund.

"Edelman identified Zinn as a major influence in her life and, in that same journal article, tells of his accompanying students to a sit-in at the segregated white section of the Georgia state legislature.[31]

Although Zinn was a tenured professor, he was dismissed in June 1963 after siding with students in the struggle against segregation.

When did you and Julie participate in the struggle to end segregation?

Howard Zinn - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

 

[georgephillip]

"School boards have long been an electoral target of the right wing in the U.S. In JeffCo, the current conservative majority won a narrow victory in November 2013, an off-year election with low voter turnout. 'About 33 percent of the total population that could vote voted. Elections matter, and especially school-board elections,' John Ford said on Democracy Now! recently.

"He’s a social-studies teacher at Moore Middle School and the president of the Jefferson County Education Association, representing more than 5,000 teachers, librarians, counselors and other employees of the district.

"The power of school boards is often underestimated. 'I’ve been paying attention to the school board for the past year, and I have been increasingly concerned about what’s been going on,' Ashlyn Maher told me.

"She is a senior at Chatfield High School who helped organize the student walkouts.

"Civil disobedience has a long and storied role in U.S. history.

"The Declaration of Independence itself, so cherished by conservatives and progressives alike, instructs 'Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.'

"Maher says that disobedience is 'the foundation of our country. I took AP U.S. history myself, and all I was presented with were the facts. And then I made the opinions based on those facts. I was never told what to think.'

"The teachers also have been battling the board majority since it took power. 'We’ve had a long history of collaboration with the school board and the superintendent. And that’s all coming to an end,' Ford said."

A Force More Powerful in Jefferson County Colorado Democracy Now

 

[Two Thumbs]

The three conservative members of the five-person board want to create a curriculum-review committee to make changes in the College Board’s new framework for Advanced Placement United States History classes. The conservatives claim the course structure contains anti-American bias.

The school board proposal has triggered student walkouts and other protests in several Jefferson County high schools. The students object to the review committee's plan to examine texts and course plans to ensure that they “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect of authority and respect for individual rights” and do not “encourage civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”

The proposal is the work of Julie Williams, one of the board’s conservative members. On her Facebook page, Williams says the College Board’s new curriculum “rejects the history that has been taught in the country for generations. It has an emphasis on race, gender, class, ethnicity, grievance and American-bashing while simultaneously omitting the most basic structural and philosophical elements considered essential to the understanding of American History for generations. Let me give you some examples of who is omitted: Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin with not even a mention of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was on the forefront of the civil rights movement. It ignores lessons on the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address…”

Apparently Williams does not consider the Boston Tea Party an instance of “civil disorder.”​

Sanitizing American History

The Irony here, is that my 15-year-old son not only knows that the purpose of studying history is not to "...promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect of authority and respect for individual rights", while discouraging "...civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”, but that, in fact, one of the most important events in American History - The American Revolution - was just that, an act of civil disorder, and disregard for the law.

How is it that a 15-year-old kid has a better understanding of the purpose of History, and comprehension of actual historical events, than do the adults who are supposed to be responsible for setting the curriculum for our kids? And conservatives claim that the intention of progressives to "indoctrinate" our kids...

You clearly are an idiot and are harping on one tiny point.

Let me give you some examples of who is omitted: Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin with not even a mention of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was on the forefront of the civil rights movement. It ignores lessons on the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address…”


That is skipped? These very important people and events are skipped. Our kids are getting short shafted and taght to hate America.

but you're cool with that cuz you found a loop hole in what she said.

The point is that what she said was, at best, inaccurate, and at worst a lie. One of us here is an idiot, anyway...

yea, you

you're lower war to civil disobedience. That's idiotic at best

 

[Uncensored2008]

That's not what they said. "[the] course plans to ensure that they “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect of authority and respect for individual rights” and do not “encourage civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.” That isn't about teaching "facts"; it is about filtering historical events to fit an agenda. There's a difference.

So you think that history must be presented in such a way as to demonize the free market system and the concept of individual rights so that collectivist goals might be achieved?

It is about teaching facts, which Zinn never bothered with - and let's be honest, it IS what we are talking about.

{Let me give you some examples of who is omitted: Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin with not even a mention of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was on the forefront of the civil rights movement. It ignores lessons on the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address…”}

You seek socialist indoctrination, and are offended that someone stood up and demanded that legitimate history be taught instead.

Edit ---------------------

The board proposals are chilling, something out of the USSR circa 1949.

{
To help students create their own interpretation of U.S. history,
students and teachers should examine changing historical interpretations
over time, such as the different ways that historians have interpreted the
institution of American slavery or evaluated Reconstruction. Historians
have the added challenge of addressing “presentism,” or how contemporary
ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions
and interpretations of historical events. The skill of interpretation becomes
particularly important as students progress from describing what they are
learning about past events to reflecting on assorted historical evidence in terms
of contextual values and cultural bias. }

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Forget facts and figures, have students make it up as they go to support political objectives...

 

[Rikurzhen]

Gender...........?

WTF????
Explain the importance of gender in our history. Aside from women's suffrage what's the point?

So....Abigail Adams and her contributions are unimportant? So Sagagewea's contributions are unimportant? So Andrew Jackson's wife is unimportant when studying his character in the WH? So all those pioneer women who had to sometimes make it on their own are unimportant?

Instructional time in finite, so tell me what lesson you want to exclude in order to make time for Abigail Adams and I'll tell you whether the trade-off is worth it or not.

 

[ogibillm]

Simple reporting of recorded history is one thing. To add embellishments, and a socialist point of view is another.

There is no sense in leaving ANYTHING out of the teaching of history. History is merely a record of things that happened.

is it not clear that this is obviously a move to inject bias, not remove it, into the teaching of history?

 

[Uncensored2008]

There is no sense in leaving ANYTHING out of the teaching of history. History is merely a record of things that happened.

Yet the AP Board sought to focus on cultural and political objectives through "presentism" as opposed to teaching facts, The "impressions" formed by students need to foment cultural goals, not focus on facts.

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

 

[Uncensored2008]

Wait. I'm confused. The complaint of the woman in the article from the OP was that the course is allegedly ommiting important historical facts. Now you're saying that the problem is that it is adding extraneuos information? That's an entirely different charge. do you have some evidence to support that claim?

The technique is to omit historic fact, and replace it with fictions of how a child in an Indian tribe felt as the evil white man came and slaughtered his mother in front of his eyes. That there is no historical account is irrelevant, the impression given of the social injustice is what students need to learn.

Who George Washington was, or Thomas Jefferson is omitted so that a fabricated story of a young black man looking for work in the city, only to be abused by a white industrialist who forces him to work 20 hours a day in a sweatshop, until he is tragically pulled into a machine and loses his arm. At which time evil whitey throws him into the street to starve.

Fact is discarded in favor myths that promote the correct impressions for the social, cultural, and political goals.

 

[ogibillm]

There is no sense in leaving ANYTHING out of the teaching of history. History is merely a record of things that happened.

Yet the AP Board sought to focus on cultural and political objectives through "presentism" as opposed to teaching facts, The "impressions" formed by students need to foment cultural goals goals, not focus on facts.

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

that's really what you draw from the quote you posted about "presentism?" really?
that's just sad.

 

[Uncensored2008]

The benefits of the free market system? That's economics, not history.

This is PC at its worst.

Yes, because the market revolution had no impact on American history....

Rati, you are ignorant and uneducated - but what if I said that without the market revolution, slavery would have evaporated by 1830. Would you shriek "hate whitey" and gnash wildly at such a suggestion? Or would you grasp why economic systems determined the history of this nation?

If I said Eli Whitney made slavery profitable, would you grasp it, or would you regale us with tales of Plains Indians living in perfect peace and harmony with neighbors and nature alike?

 

[Uncensored2008]

that's really what you draw from the quote you posted about "presentism?" really?
that's just sad.

Lenin said "the future belongs to those who control the past."

This shows what he means. The radical left assumed control of the curriculum of public schools some years ago. History was a primary target of the left, presenting not just a revisionist view, but a completely alien presentation. I focus on Howard Zinn's Socialist screed, but the cling-ons have crafted many replicas of the Zinn distortions.

Instead of merely lying about Thomas Jefferson, simply omit him entirely. Instead of examining the creation of the great canals and the impact that free market economics had on Westward expansion and the migration of people from the cities to open lands, simply omit it and tell fictional accounts of how indigenous people were mistreated in fabricated first hand accounts. Rather than examining the impact of specialized farming on the production of food, and the fact that America had for the first time in human history, a consistent surplus that not only ended starvation but caused the commoner to have abundant free time to pursue education and culture, giving rise to the middle class, create tales of Irish in the throws of the industrial revolution and present them as victims rather than voluntary workers who enjoyed more security than at any other time in their lives.

You of the left seek to distort history so that you may pervert reality. Knowledge and education are the weapons that will necessarily defeat socialism - ergo the left seeks to pervert education from the understanding of facts, to the emotional attachment to socialist goals.

 

[georgephillip]

"Curricular requirements
• The teacher has read the most recent AP U.S. History Course and Exam
Description.

"• The course includes a college-level U.S. history textbook, diverse
primary sources, and secondary sources written by historians or
scholars interpreting the past.

"• Each of the course’s historical periods receives explicit attention.

"• The course provides opportunities for students to apply detailed and
specific knowledge (such as names, chronology, facts, and events) to
broader historical understandings.

"• The course provides students with opportunities for instruction in the
learning objectives in each of the seven themes throughout the course,
as described in the AP U.S. History curriculum framework.

"• The course provides opportunities for students to develop coherent
written arguments that have a thesis supported by relevant historical
evidence. — Historical argumentation

"• The course provides opportunities for students to identify and evaluate
diverse historical interpretations. — Interpretation"

What is it about diversity that scares conservatives shitless?

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

 

[ogibillm]

that's really what you draw from the quote you posted about "presentism?" really?
that's just sad.

Lenin said "the future belongs to those who control the past."

This shows what he means. The radical left assumed control of the curriculum of public schools some years ago. History was a primary target of the left, presenting not just a revisionist view, but a completely alien presentation. I focus on Howard Zinn's Socialist screed, but the cling-ons have crafted many replicas of the Zinn distortions.

Instead of merely lying about Thomas Jefferson, simply omit him entirely. Instead of examining the creation of the great canals and the impact that free market economics had on Westward expansion and the migration of people from the cities to open lands, simply omit it and tell fictional accounts of how indigenous people were mistreated in fabricated first hand accounts. Rather than examining the impact of specialized farming on the production of food, and the fact that America had for the first time in human history, a consistent surplus that not only ended starvation but caused the commoner to have abundant free time to pursue education and culture, giving rise to the middle class, create tales of Irish in the throws of the industrial revolution and present them as victims rather than voluntary workers who enjoyed more security than at any other time in their lives.

You of the left seek to distort history so that you may pervert reality. Knowledge and education are the weapons that will necessarily defeat socialism - ergo the left seeks to pervert education from the understanding of facts, to the emotional attachment to socialist goals.

you're dealing entirely from a deck of truthiness.

 

[Uncensored2008]

[
you're dealing entirely from a deck of truthiness.

I'm dealing with an ignorant fool. Social promotion may have pushed you through high school, but you have virtually no education.

 

[ogibillm]

[
you're dealing entirely from a deck of truthiness.

I'm dealing with an ignorant fool. Social promotion may have pushed you through high school, but you have virtually no education.

can you explain what "presentism" means?

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Today's liberals not only want all of our dirty laundry aired, but they oppose any teachings of the positive things America has created.

I've never been for home schooling, as I believe there is a severe lack of socialization for most kids who are home schooled. More and more though, I think it's the only way kids will ever see anything positive about our history.