Posted on 06/09/2005 1:59:34 PM PDT by americaprd
There used to be a consensus on what was important in American history. Unfortunately, no such consensus exists today. I have no faith in a curriculum proposed by liberals and leftists.
Typical liberal thinking: to reach racial harmony, we must take every opportunity to point out differences between the races and put down one of them (guess which one).
I remember taking my Daddy's Ecyclopedia Britannica and just reading it. I was surprised how many famous men were from Scotland. A lot of them not famous enough that you would have heard of them but famous because of what they accomplished.
To clarify: the Scots have had a tremendous historical impact. Scottish history arguably has not. The Wars of the Roses and the internecine warfare of the Italian city-states had a widespread impact on European history, but a great many Kings of Scots came and went without ever influencing much outside Scotland.
If Scotland produced Scots who had a tremendous impact on the world then the country by definition had a tremendous impact on the world.
You misunderstand the distinction I draw between the Scots and the history of Scotland. Neil Armstrong had an important impact on world affairs, but that doesn't mean that Wapakoneta, Ohio did.
I doubt if many people know of Einstein"s parents, but they definitely had an impact on the world.
Just because it is indirect does not make it not so.
The people Scotland produced are as much a part of her history as the wars she fought.
As an aside I remember when they were making lists of the 100 greatest people in history. I thought that no one would say "Sir Alexander Fleming" yet his discovery of penicillin lead indirectly to saving more lives than probably any thing in history. Before 1900 over 90% of people died of infectious disease. After 1950 the number had fallen to less than 10%.
That is a tremendous impact on world history.
That was a nice post.
And by reductio ad absurdum, some aboriginal Pictish ancestor of the Scots was the most important of them all. This approach, however, does not assist our understanding of history.
As an aside I remember when they were making lists of the 100 greatest people in history. I thought that no one would say "Sir Alexander Fleming" yet his discovery of penicillin lead indirectly to saving more lives than probably any thing in history.
Then why not, by your logic, cite Fleming's crucial parents?
In other words you don't have to go back very far before one of your ancestors can claim only 1/128th credit for you.
Same goes for countries. Scotland may not be able to claim full credit for Alexander Graham Bell but they can for Alexander Fleming.
As for whatever town that was for the first man on the Moon, I would bet if you went there and asked what that little town had ever contributed to world history, someone would say "Have you never heard the first man on the moon?.
Someone just told me Bell was in fact born in Scotland.
It will be another milestone in the victimology curriculum.
Sounds great.
Not so. No. 3 will be: Cushy high-paying racial preference job at any number of large corporations or government agencies. The "You want fries with that" jobs, if they even get those, will go to those who fail to complete steps 1 and 2. And to think that there are some who actually believe that America isn't a land of opportunity!
Booker T. and the MG's?
I would, too. I'm old enough so that my History education concentrated on important civilizations (Greeks, Romans, etc), important eras (Dark Ages, Renaissance, etc.), and the now discredited Western "white guys" (like George Washington, Ben Franklin, etc.)
There were dark skinned people in the lessons (esp. in this country - Douglas, Booker T., G. W. Carver, etc.)
It might be my age and education, but I don't know of an era or civilization where world history was changed by a group united only by their skin color.
As I recall, the Ibo were the folks who tried to break free of Nigeria in the 1970s and form their own nation of Biafra. The predominantly Muslim Nigerian army crushed the attempt with horrific slaughter inflicted upon the Animist and Christian Ibo.
SHHHH...you're telling the truth...it'll never fly in "Social Studies" class...
It's probably a very easy class. Such classes usually are in college.
....I would love to see the curriculum."......
"Now, class, before we do the higher math studies on the amount of reparations each of us are due; we'll spend the next month de-constructing the poetry of Maya Angelou"
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