The quotes from these southern elementary school history textbooks are, besides terribly pro-slavery, also laughably promoting their home state like a hotel brochure. Each state teaches that the surrounding states treated their slaves terribly but the home state masters were nice
https://twitter.com/dribram/status/1390716881573646337
I didn’t grow up with anything like this, although I never had much respect for history as taught in elementary or high school anyway.
My BA is in history. My favorite teacher had taught us left-wing and right-wing interpretations of every era, made our exams essays where we had to pick a side and defend it, and I never had a damn clue what his own views were.
History can and should be taught like that to everyone. Teach all the relevant perspectives; don’t let the teacher pick a side or force their own views; teach the students to argue and defend the perspective they choose and grade them on the quality of their argument.
This isn’t a version of “all sides are equal.” Let the student call bullshit. Teach the student to call bullshit.
But teach the student to think, rather than injecting thoughts into their head and expecting them to regurgitate them.
But teach the student to think, rather than injecting thoughts into their head and expecting them to regurgitate them.
Most elementary and high school history books are trash, and schools generally aren’t good for learning. But we have them so let’s at least get rid of trash education and teach critical thinking.
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