He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877.Hey, I've got an even better idea! Why don't the high schools in Germany and Japan just skip over that inconvenient period between 1930 and 1945?
State education leaders say this may help students learn about more recent history in greater depth.
This isn't about "refocusing the curriculum". This is about blotting out a time in American history that is embarrassing to some parts of the political spectrum. This also sets the stage for the stripping of civil rights. If you don't teach children in school about the founding of this country and about the entire period of slavery, if you start right in after the end of Reconstruction, then you can portray the entire civil rights struggle as little more than a fight over political power between special interest groups.
If you don't teach children about the American Revolution, then the rights and liberties that are contained in the Constitution lose much of their meaning. The little dearies will not appreciate their rights if they have no idea what it cost to obtain them. (Many schools are already part of the way there, since it is rather difficult to appreciate what rights and freedoms mean without at least a glib understanding of the Magna Carta. ) Without a teaching of the Revolution, then the Constitution becomes, in the words of George W. Bush, "just another goddamn piece of paper".
This is about breeding a dumber generation of Sheeple (a task for which the Texas State Board of Education has long taken the lead).
5 comments:
LOL! I am in the middle of re-reading George Orwells 1984...too funny. Where is winston smith when you need him? Doubledoulbenotgood.
That last line should read 'doubledoublenot good' not that sticky keyboard typo. Sorry.
FWIW, haivng lived in Japan -- they DO tend to gloss over a lot of th emore unpleasant aspects of that 1930 - 1945 period. Unit 741 and the Rape of Nanking in particular.
I remember reading a few articles along that line, crankylitprof. The Chinese in particular were critical of the way Japanese textbooks were being edit, for some reason.;)
Anyway, starting American history at 1866 or later is a bit like studying embryology at mid-term. You miss many of the most important parts, including how it all started. The Civil War was the most formative event in our history, after the Revolution and the Constitution.
This decision does not make recent history more important. It robs it of much of its context.
No wonder Walmart wants to pave over Civil War battlefields.
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