Is this where we are headed?

1) Yes, that is your job. History is dates/places/names/actions. It's facts and figures. History is not open to interpretation.

2) No, that is not your job. Sociology, ethics, ideology, etc does not belong in History classes. History is not open to interpretation.

 

This is the stupidest thing I have ever read. History is nothing but interpretation. To say otherwise shows a fundamental lack of understanding about what history is.

 

Yes; but then educated thinkers have realized that for at least a decade or more. Eventually Dem Party people will catch on, of course; but by then it will be too late for them to change anything that THEIR Party's increasingly sick ideology and politics has brought into being.

 

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd our leftists will cheer every step of the way until one day they cease cheering and look around at what they helped bring into being. Then they will cry about it and demand somebody fix things. But by then it will be too late. They should have read the book and then THOUGHT about it.

 

That's weird. Marxists use precisely the same rhetoric when talking about U.S. history books. For them that's code for substituting Social Engineering theory and ideologically based political correctness for known history. However that's just an interesting coincidence, I am sure.

 

So I said I don't want to brainwash my students with propaganda and what you get out of that is, "Marxists use precisely the same rhetoric when talking about U.S. history books" and "For them that's code for substituting Social Engineering theory and ideologically based political correctness for known history." This is confusing for me, because people like you must surely think the evil Marxists DO want to brainwash students. In fact, I taught history in China for a few years, and their position on history is actually identical to yours. History as a means of delivering hyper-nationalist propaganda into unsuspecting young minds. President Xi would be proud of you. So actually, it is you whose rhetoric is precisely the same as Marxists, not mine.

 

Hmmm. That's a no from me here.

History is chock full of interpretation. I doubt anybody is suggesting that we don't pay attention to dates but paying attention to the big picture is exactly why teachers teach. And a good one will present both sides if there are two.

Our human history is so much more nuanced than just names and dates. The why is so much better.

 

I remember talking to refugees from the old Soviet Union, and they expressed shock that the history taught inside the United States had no resemblence to what their Marxists taught. But on the other hand they would have recognized your rhetoric as very familiar.

 

Again, you make no coherent point. Of course it was totally different. They were force fed hyper-nationalist propaganda of the Soviet type, while you were force fed hyper-nationalist propaganda of the American type. They aren't the same in content, they are the same in type. I want something radically different than that. You want the other side of the same coin.

PS. You have now twice asserted something without argument, logic, or evidence. If you want to re-assert it again, please provide one of those things, otherwise this discussion is becoming very tedious.