Posted on 06/18/2020 5:51:46 PM PDT by robowombat
Education May 30, 2017
Does the Witch Hunt to Rename Monuments Signal a Narrow Education?
By Annie Holmquist
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a popular trend to rename various geographical and manmade landmarks. The renaming attempts often revolve around issues of racism, particularly in relation to whether an individual was pro-slavery.
The latest incident in this line of renaming attempts occurred at a high school in Madison, Wisconsin. As local publication The Capital Times explains, the school is named for America’s fourth president and one of the nation’s founding fathers, James Madison. And therein lies the trouble; for Madison, like many of the nation’s founders, owned slaves.
This fact brought a great deal of consternation to Mya Berry, a student of the school who happens to be of African American descent. Berry began a petition to change the school name, “citing the need to create a more inclusive environment for African-American students.”
Cases like these are hardly unique today. What’s interesting about this incident, however, is the process through which it came about. According to The Capital Times:
“Berry said she was inspired to start the petition after watching a documentary about the history of enslavement. Currently, she is enrolled in a social justice class where her teacher asked students to consider the type of change they want to make in the world.
‘This is my social change,’ she said.” Let’s start by giving credit where it’s due: it’s exemplary that schools like the one Berry attends are trying to teach their students to make a difference in the world. But in aiming for this goal, have schools failed to give their students the tools to actually do so in a sensible, rational way?
Take, for example, the instruction which inspired Berry to petition for a name change for the school. One of these points of instruction was a course on social justice. As has been noted in the past, social justice curriculum is becoming prominent in schools and often conditions students “to see the world through the lens of race, to adopt the mantras of certain radical groups, and to become activists.” Such a viewpoint is clearly one-sided and seems to provide indoctrination rather than instruction in reaching an informed decision.
The second factor which influenced Berry’s advocacy was a documentary on slavery. Such a topic is a worthy one; however, it is only a small, specialized area of history. According to the Nation’s Report Card, only 12 percent of American high school students are proficient in this subject. Clearly, America’s schools are not very effective at passing on a broad, well-balanced view of our nation’s past.
This is important, particularly considering that Madison himself wrestled with the idea of slavery. As a collection of quotes from George Mason University indicates, Madison, like many other founders, saw major problems with the practice and spent a decent amount of time pondering and debating various ways to abolish it. By focusing on specialized, selective glimpses of history, are students receiving a one-sided, inaccurate overview of the past, and actually being encouraged to condemn and forget those who made significant contributions to the anti-slavery argument?
If we want students who will make a positive difference in society, perhaps it’s time we stopped schooling them in such narrow, specialized subject matter.
yeah, it's not just a lack of education. I've suffered from a lack of education, solely because I hated history in high school, and didn't pay a lot of attention. I have recovered, and have since learned many things. I'm no scholar, mind you, but I have a pretty good base these days.
The propagandization - that is strong. I learned something I never thought I would when I went back to college some 15 years after finishing high school. I learned that things had changed a LOT concerning how history and social order was taught. The mid 90s was my great awakening to the lies and distortions that were being taught at the college level, at least at some schools.
Do wild bears crap in the woods?
So, you are old enough that history was taught when you were in high school? When I was HS in the early 60s history was pretty sparse and already trending toward PC. By the time my kids were in HS the public schools didn’t even have courses titled with the word “History.” My primary schooling was in a private Calvert System school for the spawn of diplomats and military in Istanbul. When I got back to the USA by 6th grade I already had more history than I was to encounter again before my junior year in college where I majored in it.
“Erasing history? Never going to happen.”
Oh, I’m hoping it does. According to the liberal news masters at the NY Times, research has identified Redoshi, later given the name Sally Smith, who died in 1937, as the last living survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. If my math is right then the last person who had direct knowledge of there being slaves died over 80 years ago. So except for opinions, there is no first hand knowledge of slavery as there is no victim proof unless faith in opinions is accepted. If slavery history is removed, then it didn’t happen. And anyone can say it did. I can say I was standing on the moon without o2, don’t mean much. If history is erased, it is gone. So, no reparations, no special programs, nothing. And so are the followup excuses for inflicting pain and suffering. Build more jails, you’re gong to need them.
Please be that stupid. It would solve a lot of problems.
rwood
Let’s rename Pennsylvania to Smeltzavania after the Smeltz brothers.
I heard some liberals saying everything should be named after Indians. Ie ohlone
The "protesters" are helping 1% billionaires to enslave the world, while claiming to be against slavery. Irony.
Which is why the “useful idiots” term has always been so apt.
The thing about changing names is that when sanity returns they can be changed back like Leningrad back to St. Petersburg. :)
Yes. Fear and ignorance reigns liberals.
It signals no education at all.
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