Posted on 06/11/2015 10:35:13 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Fifty-five top historians have signed an open letter criticizing the College Boards revamp of its Advanced Placement U.S. history curriculum, in which half a million of the nations brightest students enroll each year. It is the final U.S. history class many ever take.
The National Association of Scholars, which coordinated the letter, notes: Lynne Cheney, Bruce Cole, Patrick J. Deneen, Robert George, Leon Kass, Victor Davis Hanson, and Harvey Mansfield signed the letter, among several dozen other prominent scholars. Their letter says:
The College Boards 2014 Advanced Placement Examination shortchanges students by imposing on them an arid, fragmentary, and misleading account of American history. We favor instead a robust, vivid, and content-rich account of our unfolding national drama, warts and all, a history that is alert to all the ways we have disagreed and fallen short of our ideals, while emphasizing the ways that we remain one nation with common ideals and a shared story.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I’m sure the changes are bad, but maybe offer a few examples of what is wrong?
Thanks nickcarraway.
White, male, heterosexual, Christian, capitalists are bad.
Is it as bad as this?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnlrK14OZn0
Ok so pretty much the same as they’ve been teaching since the 90s, but they added “heterosexual” to the list of evils?
Mark
"During the period leading up to the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine wrote a prorevolutionary pamphlet series, 'Common Sense.' It was so influential that John Adams said, 'Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.' In the meantime, women and minorities also did lots of important stuff."
I just finished with a class in American History from 1945 to the Present.
It went like this.
Truman - Good
Eisenhower - Bad
Kennedy - Awesome
Johnson - Better than Kennedy
Nixon - Satan’s spawn
Ford - Total putz
Carter - Not as great as Johnson but better than Kennedy
Reagan - Satan
Bush - Satan light
Clinton - Gods gift to mankind (And apparently womankind)
Bush - Eisenhower light
Obama - Makes Johnson look like Bush
After reading the first chapter, I emailed my history professor. Told him how old I was, that I have been around for some of this and while I will not bring politics into the class, I will argue my points based on facts and not the author’s ideology. I never brought my ideology into the conversation.
Any time on the discussion board someone went full Marx, I slapped them down with facts. Was called a neo-con several times, each time reminding them that this was a history course and not a politics course. It would piss the little lefties off to no end, especially since they were calling me something based on actual history and not the version they were getting. Wasn’t sure if they got the irony.
Aced the class and received a recommendation for my masters program.
A dozen or so years ago, I found and read newspaper archives from 1861 through 1865. I read the same articles from both Southern and Northern news services. Reading the slant from each side gave me insight to what probably actually happened and neither were what I was taught in school. I really hate revisionist history.
When history becomes part of an agenda it become propaganda to teach kids how to think and who to blame for the condition of the world—Real or Imagined. The story of the Civil War is a point—It was a complex subject—but boiled down to one issue —Black slavery. The blacks who fought for the CSA are ignored, the heroes, tarnished, the leaders tarred (even Lincoln). It has the south almost as bad as Hitler to the point the Confederate Battle Flag is banned and linked to the black flag of Nazi Germany. Next “Dixie” will be banned as “Hate Music”. Now the focus has changed to Evil Christians, Texans, and Gun owners.
I’m on the list.
I was in a Master’s history class some years ago on WWII and following years. The professor was giving his introductory lecture when a lady down in front (who had introduced herself as a high school teacher getting her Masters so she could get more pay) kept waving her hand.
He finally stopped and asked her if she had a question. In a breathless voice that showed how excited she was to have the floor, said, “You keep talking about WWII. Doesn’t that mean there had to be a WWI?”
The revisionist history is being taught by folks who have already been brainwashed or shouldn’t be teaching a five year old.
Thanks for doing what you do. We need real history and not the propaganda the education establishment is increasingly dishing out.
I recall that Michelle Obama announced that we would need to “change our history”. These people are serious.
Thanks ct for the kind remarks!
LS: “I’m on the list.”
Thank you!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.