[Criminal Number 18F]

It sounds like they're looking at the compare-and-contrast angle. It would be just as edifying to do that with a 2005 US textbook and a 1965 US textbook -- before patriotism went out of style and it became mandatory for textbook writers to ascribe all good deeds to minorities.

These are 11th Graders -- they should be able to handle looking at the Soviet point of view without turning into Alger Hiss. By age 17, everyone but sociopaths understands multiple points of view...

I think it's a pretty creative way to teach a class, actually.

In my 10th or 11th Grade class, I forget, I took a history elective called "Russian-Soviet Studies." It was team teaching with two liberal and one conservative teachers. We covered Russia from ancient history to the present day (which was 1974 or so, the height of Soviet power). I thought it would be worthwhile to know the enemy in case I wound up in the military after college (which I did, and I still retain stuff that Mr Perlow, Miss Marino, and Mr Labrie taught me all those years ago).

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[dangus]

Compare and contrast? That's the EXACT same thing I was taught in publik screwel!

The only part of the Soviet textbook that's a different characterization is the strange bit about England siezing Manhattan from the Dutch. Other than that, it seemed more POSITIVE than American textbooks.