Is this where we are headed?

They are challenging and attempting to change if not erase entirely our history.

 

Have there been any book burnings? If not, this seems relevant...



PS. Even if I take your proposition seriously, that they (whoever they are) are trying to "erase entirely our history," your quote still doesn't work here. YOU are the one defending the symbols of the state, THEY are not.

 

They don't have to burn them they replace them in the schools.

 

As a history teacher, I can tell you that many of the history books currently used in schools are nationalistic propaganda, mixed with a heaping dollop of lost cause revisionism, and an overwhelming dose of white-washing. Good history will present competing arguments, which is what these people are trying to do. Bad history will simply sell that first vision, so as to promote "American exceptionalism." That is brainwashing, I want no part of it.

 

Personally I will never forgive Trump for that.

 

I saw a quote the other day taken from a history textbook that was a downright lie. I want no part of that.

 

Lol...wrong. Under the cult of trump, it's the great orange dotard who is worshipped as always right.
But buck up, people are seeing the light.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/republicans-change-mind-trump-ad-070157598.html

 

It's the victor's privilege to destroy all their previous ruler's statues. Good news for the statue industry 'cause we'll always be needing new ones.

 

No. The notion is hysterical and ridiculous, but I’ve noticed a lot of projection coming from Trump and his supporters the past four-odd years.

 

Try sticking to the subject please which has nothing to do with Trump.

 

So you are teaching our future generations our country and it's history has not been exceptional? Yep therein lies the problem.

 

I am teaching them that our history has been both exceptional and terrible, just like most countries. The idea that I should brainwash my students with mindless propaganda, so to make sure they believe our history is exceptional, is both gross incompetence and extraordinarily stupid.

 

What government has ever been perfect? What government has ever been greater freeing more people and enabling more freedom and liberty than in this country? Do you teach that the founding fathers and the people who created this country were great men who created the greatest government ever seen or evil white slaveowners who should be erased from history? Do you support removing and memorials or honorariums to them. Do you think history books should read "George Washington who led our country in the war for our Freedom and our First President, who was also a slave owner, live at ..............."

 

Every generation asks that and nobody yet has found a definitive answer. Return from what? To what? That's not as easy to answer as it might seem.

 

Say there, is your school board aware of these views? That you disregard texts purchased in good faith because you object to their content?

 

In my 67 years I have never seen us closer to 1984 and the younger generations seem all for it as they have been indoctrinated into such things by our public schools.

 

Young man, you are not alone.

 

I don't know. We had a pretty good run between 1970 and 2000.

 

I teach neither of those things, because one of those perspectives is dishonest and stupid, and the other is also dishonest and stupid. Many of the founding fathers were great men. Ben Franklin was an extraordinary inventor, political thinker, and leader for our country. He was also a racist and a womanizer. To tell the story of Ben Franklin without telling the whole story is dishonest and stupid.

Thomas Jefferson wrote these words "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

These were revolutionary words and ideas and they had revolutionary consequences. To dismiss the man who wrote those words as nothing more that an "evil white slave owner who should be erased from history" would be stupid and dishonest (by the way, that is a straw man, who wants to erase anyone from history? A statue is a celebration of a person. If you want to take down a state celebrating Robert E Lee, that doesn't mean you wouldn't teach the history of the civil war. That is blatantly obvious). However, Thomas Jefferson wrote those words and was in fact a slave owner. A slave owner who raped his 14 year old slave. To tell the story of Thomas Jefferson without telling the whole story would be stupid and dishonest.

I could keep going of course. However, I think the point is clear. You want a dishonest accounting of American history shoved down the throats of young people who don't know any better. That is far closer to what the party would want in 1984 than the reality I am presenting.

 

Does my school board know that I am capable of critically reading a text? I sure hope so, otherwise, I hope they would never have hired me...

PS. Flippancy aside, I genuinely can't see what point you are trying to get at. Do you think a school board would expect a teacher to unthinkingly tell students what is in a textbook and then have those students memorize what is in that textbook? I can assure you they wouldn't.

 

Yeah, just make it up as you go along, because you know more than the textbook authors.

 

you do realise it's the statues themselves that are part of a rewriting of history and conservatives are falling for it, that is why they must be removed from state house lawns

 

Again, I don't think you are properly thinking these things through. First of all, what does your statement mean? Make it up as you go along? What are you talking about? There are many different US history textbooks. All textbooks are historical surveys, so they are by nature, a thousand feet wide and a few inches deep. When it comes to a lot of periods of history, this cursory overview is just fine (depending on your priorities). However, when it comes to the major formative periods in US history, they fall dramatically short. That is simply the nature of textbooks. They give a broad overview and that is it. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to supplement a textbook with other primary and secondary sources about important figures and historical moments, to assign research projects on those topics, and to promote critical thinking in your students.. That is true in every good history class in America.

 

I think very clearly, having been raised in a teaching environment with numerous immediate relatives either active or now retired. One had a school named after her. Another is a superintendent of a K-12 district.

You describe freewheeling with your own interpretation. You insist you have the right to your own facts.

 

You may think clearly as a general rule... I have no idea, I don't know you. On this topic, however, you most certainly are not thinking clearly. Interpreting historical evidence is literally what I teach!! It is NOT my job to teach students that the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon on the 28th of May 1588. It is my job to teach my students how to interpret the historical record, by using evidence and argumentation, to understand why the Spanish Armada was launched in the first place and what the repercussions of English victory were. So yes, I need to have my own interpretation, and so do all of my students. That is obvious. Which is why I said you aren't properly thinking these things through.

Lastly, a "right to your own facts" is something you just made up. It is a straw man, nothing more.