“Those books were also written for boys about mostly American men!”
My parents had a bookshelf that I made my way through going up. I remember having all these history textbooks, and reading them on trips, and I was maybe 10-11. I knew them for the most part by heart. I can’t imagine what my parents must have thought at the time, I don’t know anyone else like that around my age.
“He did what I suggested, but was disgusted. He felt he was lying all year.”
I did the same when I was in university. I actually left in my last year because I was disgusted by the whole process. I met my fiancee a few years later and she encouraged me to go back. I realised when I did, that I was for the first time, free. I could write about what I wanted to write and battle the profs, and the worst thing they could do is give me a poor grade. Some did, others respected me, but for me, it was good to respect myself and defend my own beliefs.
It wears on you though. I am glad to be finished. I am hoping to go on and teach so I can give young men and women the opportunity to learn history the way it was supposed to be taught, like your son did.
We talk about how the schools are failing boys, and this is part. Boys would love to tell ‘real stories’ and that is exactly what history is all about, being able to tell the stories of the past.
He decided to make history his hobby and go into science.
I am glad you found what makes your heart sing! Great work teaching history - especially dead white male history! The old civics books - early 1960s - are wonderful for delivering to kids the concepts of what it means to be free and the responsibilities and American-American spirit that comes with it. Woohoo!!!!!!