Posted on 06/08/2004 12:04:16 PM PDT by quidnunc
It’s not just overreaction or Yankee imagination. Anti-Americanism is not only alive and well, it’s spoon fed in Canada.
And it stems from a taxpayer paid source: the classroom.
The Three 'Rs, Canada style, have been teaching school children as young as grade school an image of Americans as dishonourable, churlish and even bullying. This less than admirable image emerges in a study, presented this week to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Manitoba.
Amy von Heyking is a professor of education at the University of Alberta. A specialist in the history of curricula and teaching materials, von Heyking relied on actual Canadian classroom textbooks — 75 of them — used in Canadian history, geography, civics and social studies courses in elementary and secondary schools.
Ironic that the release of the study coincides with the 60th Anniversary of D-Day.
The Canadian grade school set get their anti-Americanism during the school day.
Down through the decades, in Canadian textbooks American society has been portrayed as revolutionary and lawless. America’s contribution to World War 1 is dismissed, textbook form, as coming late, when the tide had already turned.
Bad Housing as the American way is documented in a chapter of its own because of the supposed role it plays in the development of crime.
America’s children are portrayed as being brought up in "filthy tenements, driven out upon the streets to play in 'gangs’," according to a 1934 textbook that was prevalent in Canadian classrooms of the day.
In contrast, Canadians are depicted as orderly, harmonious and gentlemanly.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at torontofreepress.com ...
It's little wonder there is lingering anti-American sentiment in Canada: a new study says textbooks used in Canadian schools throughout the 20th century portrayed the United States as dishonourable, churlish, and even bullying.
America received a reprieve after the Second World War, when course materials portrayed the nation as a champion of democracy taking on the Communist threat, but it was short-lived.
"In the early part of the 20th century, there's a sense of moral superiority in our treatment, and it's coming from a conservative education elite," Amy von Heyking, a professor of education at the University of Alberta, said in an interview. "By the end of the century, there's the same sense of cultural and even moral superiority — we as Canadians understand the world — but it's now coming from a left education establishment."
Von Heyking, a specialist in the history of curricula and teaching materials, presented her study this week at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Manitoba. The Congress ends Sunday.
"We are quite self-righteous that we know America in a way they don't know us, but it's a superficial look. We use them for our own purposes," said von Heyking, who undertook a content analysis of curriculum documents and 75 textbooks used in Canadian history, geography, civics and social studies courses in elementary and secondary schools.
-snip-
She said there was one constant throughout the century — Canadian textbook authors used images of the U.S. to frame Canadian interests and the Canadian identity, instead of providing Canadian students with a better understanding of America.
-snip
(Sarah Schmidt [CanWest News Service] in The Leader-Post [Regina], June 5, 2004)
To Read This Article Click Here
So9
Canadian textbook authors used images of the U.S. to frame Canadian interests and the Canadian identity, instead of providing Canadian students with a better understanding of America.
Of course they did.
If Canadian students had a better understanding of America, why would they stay in Canada?
Where is this country "Canada" ?
Anti-Americanism spoonfed to Canadian grade school kids
by Judi McLeod
(other Anti-American examples at the bottom of the page)
It’s not just overreaction or Yankee imagination. Anti-Americanism is not only alive and well, it’s spoon fed in Canada.
And it stems from a taxpayer paid source: the classroom.
The Three `Rs, Canada style, have been teaching school children as young as grade school an image of Americans as dishonourable, churlish and even bullying. This less than admirable image emerges in a study, presented this week to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Manitoba.
Amy von Heyking is a professor of education at the University of Alberta. A specialist in the history of curricula and teaching materials, von Heyking relied on actual Canadian classroom textbooks--75 of them--used in Canadian history, geography, civics and social studies courses in elementary and secondary schools.
Ironic that the release of the study coincides with the 60th Anniversary of D-Day.
The Canadian grade school set get their anti-Americanism during the school day.
Down through the decades, in Canadian textbooks American society has been portrayed as revolutionary and lawless. America’s contribution to World War 1 is dismissed, textbook form, as coming late, when the tide had already turned.
Bad Housing as the American way is documented in a chapter of its own because of the supposed role it plays in the development of crime.
America’s children are portrayed as being brought up in "filthy tenements, driven out upon the streets to play in `gangs’," according to a 1934 textbook that was prevalent in Canadian classrooms of the day.
In contrast, Canadians are depicted as orderly, harmonious and gentlemanly.
States the study author: "After the Second World War, the United States emerged as a champion of democracy around the world. This allowed Canada to trumpet its status as middle-power broker to negotiate and compromise in a way that the United States couldn’t."
This explains where little Paulie (Martin), little Johnny (Chretien) and the plethora of anti-American Canadian journalists got their base for Yankee bashing. They, too are among the masses, which were educated in Canadian classrooms.
Chretien and Martin, the last two Liberal Canadian prime ministers have been avid boosters of the United Nations. Both men count UN Secretary General Kofi Annan special advisor, Maurice Strong as mentor and friend.
Not only did Canada refuse to join the U.S. and allies in the Iraq war; its government has been openly critical of the U.S. and its allies in Iraq.
The Liberals’ proposal for a "Peace and Nation-Building Initiative" that would not employ fighting troops, but rather "troops tasked to build institutions in fractured countries, has raised the dander of experienced Canadian peacekeepers.
Running for re-election in the Canadian June 28 federal election are Carolyn Parrish, a Liberal MP who stated publicly "I hate those American bastards" and MP Colleen Beaumier, whose visit and sympathies for Iraq earned her the nickname "Baghdad Beaumier".
Meanwhile, while anti-Americanism flourishes in America’s next door neighbour, the U.S. is Canada’s number one trading partner and because of Canada’s marginalized Armed Forces, its chief protector.
Canada Free Press founding editor Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 25 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard and the former Brampton Daily Times.
Canadian textbooks offer little insight to the U.S.
Sarah Schmidt
CanWest News Service
Saturday, June 05, 2004
It's little wonder there is lingering anti-American sentiment in Canada: a new study says textbooks used in Canadian schools throughout the 20th century portrayed the United States as dishonourable, churlish, and even bullying.
America received a reprieve after the Second World War, when course materials portrayed the nation as a champion of democracy taking on the Communist threat, but it was short-lived.
"In the early part of the 20th century, there's a sense of moral superiority in our treatment, and it's coming from a conservative education elite," Amy von Heyking, a professor of education at the University of Alberta, said in an interview. "By the end of the century, there's the same sense of cultural and even moral superiority -- we as Canadians understand the world -- but it's now coming from a left education establishment."
Von Heyking, a specialist in the history of curricula and teaching materials, presented her study this week at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Manitoba. The Congress ends Sunday.
"We are quite self-righteous that we know America in a way they don't know us, but it's a superficial look. We use them for our own purposes," said von Heyking, who undertook a content analysis of curriculum documents and 75 textbooks used in Canadian history, geography, civics and social studies courses in elementary and secondary schools.
Until the 1920s, a conservative, British ethos dominated all the subjects taught in schools. Canada, characterized as orderly, harmonious, and gentlemanly, was presented in stark contrast to America's revolutionary and lawless spirit.
The rebellious colonists, dismissed as "farmers and mechanics," couldn't match the loyalists, described as the "best material out of which to build a nation." History textbooks in particular zeroed in on Canada-U.S. conflicts, casting America in the role of a disloyal Goliath to Canada's unoffending and virtuous David.
In the 1920s, as Canada emerged from Britain's long shadow, textbooks celebrated the country's role during the First World War, while dismissing America's contribution as coming late, when "the tide had already turned."
Despite this celebratory tone about Canada's emerging national identity, concern about American cultural influence was also a dominant theme. "Yankee" institutions were seen as superficial, showy and shallow, von Heyking found in her study, Talking about Americans: The Image of the United States in Canadian Schools, 1900 to 1970.
By the 1930s, Canadian textbooks expressed admiration for America's economic and technological accomplishments, framing its success as shrewd and industrious instead of duplicitous and dishonest. But classroom materials also emphasized the human cost.
"Bad housing in the United States is of special significance because of the part it plays in the development of crime. Children brought up in filthy tenements, driven out upon the streets to play in 'gangs,' furnish the raw material for the adult gangsters so amazingly characteristic of city life in the United States today," a 1934 textbook stated.
After the Second World War, the United States emerged as a champion of democracy around the world. This allowed Canada to trumpet its status as middle-power broker "to negotiate and compromise in a way that the United States couldn't," von Heyking said.
Then the cultural revolution of the 1960s arrived, and curricular reform followed in the 1970s. The old conservative British flavour of the first part of the century was replaced by a left-leaning education ethos from the United States, informed by the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam war sentiments, said von Heyking.
She said there was one constant throughout the century -- Canadian textbook authors used images of the U.S. to frame Canadian interests and the Canadian identity, instead of providing Canadian students with a better understanding of America.
"I don't think schools have done a particularly meaningful job in really explaining the position of Americans. We don't look at them on their own terms."
The creation of an artificial Canadian national identity by the Liberal Party in the '60s will someday be seen as the treasonous sedition it was.
Pearson/Trudeau's Liberal Canada deserves a revolution.
JMHO.
Haha.
That's why our criminals run away to Canada, while hard-working Canadians run away to the US. ;)
Canada.... leading the rest of the world in being just North of the United States.
Because we don't want them?
Just north of Buffalo, just south of Detroit!
Isn't it a territory or something, like Puerto Rico?
THAT is good!
ROFL
They do brew a couple of pretty good beers.
Especialy the women.
Especially, I still hate this keyboard.
It is really too bad..I grew up across the river from Canada and spent many good times there. It is pathetic that Canadian children are being indoctrinated with anti-Americanism. Such attitudes are bad for both countries.
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