Posted on 10/07/2022 10:22:28 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
We should stop teaching history in our schools. The way history is now being taught leads to a racist society, perpetuates white privilege, and overlooks the contributions of women and minorities. I ask school districts to immediately remove history curricula, books, and materials that unfairly communicate history until suitable alternatives are developed.
Enslaved people built our young nation and made possible an economy that would throw off the control of the most powerful country then on earth, Great Britain. But, oh, at what a price.
According to Bennett Minton in The Washington Post, some schools across the country intend to teach slavery by way of “The 1619 Project,” the essays published in the New York Times last year that won the Pulitzer Prize. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, is so against its version of history that he has introduced a bill barring the use of federal funds to teach it. “As the Founding Fathers said,” Cotton told an interviewer in defending his stance, slavery “was the necessary evil upon which the union was built.”
This action is not an effort to erase history. But, the dominant majority culture has to realize the effect that the current telling of history has on a people, especially Black people. Important parts of our history have not been told or taught because it hasn’t been believed it actually happened.
Until they saw it on their TV screens, the dominant white culture didn’t believe that Blacks could be treated like John Lewis was treated, getting knocked unconscious with a cracked skull just because he was nonviolently protesting for the simple right to vote. Many did not believe that so many Blacks are victimized by police until they saw the last 8 minutes and 46 seconds of George Floyd’s life under the knee of a policeman, recorded on video.
In her recently released and highly recommended new book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” Isabel Wilkerson describes a caste system as an artificial construction that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups. Regarding Black people in America, Wilkerson wrote, “This caste system would trigger the deadliest war on U.S. soil, lead to the ritual killings of thousands of subordinate-caste people in lynchings, and become the source of inequalities that becloud and destabilize the country to this day.”
Regarding the teaching of this history, Wilkerson instructs further, “You don’t ball up in a corner with guilt or shame at these discoveries. You don’t, if you are wise, forbid any mention of them. In fact, you do the opposite. You educate yourself (and) … then you ...work to ensure that these things, whatever they are, don’t happen again.”
I taught social studies to sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders in the Chicago Public Schools for six years. I have received many letters of support from history teachers supporting this move. I have heard from teachers who don’t have enough resources and have had to buy their own more appropriate instructional materials.
One Illinois eighth-grade social studies teacher wrote to me to say, “How can educators teach students an accurate history in which the contributions of Black and African-Americans, Latinx Americans, women, religious minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other historically marginalized groups are included when none of their training and education has prepared them to do so? If there is to be widespread change, there must be adequate funding, guidance, collaboration with both K-12 teachers and those in higher education to address gaps in educator preparation courses, and measures of accountability that not only include teachers but curriculum directors, instructional coaches, and administrators.”
Until a suitable alternative is developed, we should instead devote greater attention toward civics and ensuring students understand our democratic processes and how they can be involved. Students need education about voting, how a bill becomes a law, and how citizens can influence the governments that affect their daily lives.
I proudly fly the American flag on my house every day of the year because I love the flag and “the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” This is our own moment in history. Together, let’s create an open and fair way to teach and learn our history, if we want to achieve a more perfect union.
La Shawn K. Ford is a Democratic state representative for Illinois’ 8th District. He wrote this originally for InsideSources.com.
Hmm, thought most public K12 schools had stopped teaching actual History. /s
we should stop sending children to public schools, until they can get right.
Anyone remember the english writing rule for the qualifier "but"?
Yeah. The author wants to promote an ignorance/re-writing of history.
We own the history.
Of central importance would be explaining
the role of the Democrat Party in the spread of slavery before the Civil War,
the opposition of the Democrats to the waging of the Civil War,
the foundation of the KKK by the Democrats after the Civil War,
the imposition of Jim Cow by the Democrats in the 20th century,
the opposition to desegregation by the Democrats in the 20th century,
and the destruction of black families by the Democrats' Great Society legislation.
And perhaps most importantly the tremendous advances experienced by blacks under President Donald Trump, Republican
Hideously ignorant on a massive scale. There are so many things wrong in this thinking that it would take a book to refute. Obviously, something is broken in education given this guy’s opinion.
Hey Hey Ho Ho Western Civ Has Got To Go!
The most liberal schools are producing the most racist, America hating, communist, anti religious, indoctrinated and illiterate graduates. That’s what democrats want.
Public schools MUST teach REAL American history—NOT the bogus “1619” “antiracism”!!!!
And they MUST celebrate Columbus Day and Thanksgiving—NOT “Indigenous Day” and “Day of Mourning”!!!!
The thing is, now on YouTube there are so many great History channels with content that is very objective and informative, mostly free of bias (although of course you can never totally do away with bias)
LaShawn has spoken....
We have two different opinions on what correct history is. So we should send woke families to woke schools.
Until they can get it right? They have no intentions of teaching actual US history.
I didn’t read any of the article, but an author is LaShawn.
Let me guess, more white devils are evil?
History of the kkk.
History of Margret Sanger.
He’s an Illinois politician.
.
I imagine that “getting it right” means pushing false history.
1612 Project, anyone?
The truth is that at least in my area, Teachers make a darn good living. They do not work nights, week ends, holidays, Summers, and they get 1 week out of 10 off during their 180 day work year. They rarely spend 7 hours at work, and God forbid if it snows out. Their pensions are fantastic as are their health and other benefits.
I rarely hear about just what these ‘supplies’ are that they buy. What some erasers, chalk, pencil sharpeners, crayons? It is all crap. Around here they threaten to strike, or they do strike at regular intervals. You know, for the children.
Public Schools are one of the biggest scams going in this country. Half the kids graduate and are unable to read. This is especially true in urban areas. I went to an urban area public school. I pretty much was reading before I entered the First Grade. By my teens I was completely bored with school, but I would read novels and history books. Most of my peers to this day have likely never even read a book. They seem to watch something called Kardasians and they give interviews to Mark Dice that make me cringe.
The contributed, to be sure.
So did the other 95% of the population.
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