Colorado Students Protest History Curriculum That Supports Patriotism

[CapTon 592]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/24/hundreds-colorado-students-protest-proposed-history-curriculum-changes/

 

Students should be taught of ALL history, good or bad. My personal opinion, though.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I agree.  School boards should not be educaterers.  Curricula must not be politically motivated, and history needs to be taught warts and all. 

 

If you are going to teach history, say from the 20th century, not only should all of it be covered but some time should be put into analysis of the events.  The cause of WW I was not only the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand; the cause of WW II was not Adolf Hitler but the conditions (treaty of Versailles) that allowed him to rise to power.  Post war black emancipation in the U.S. should be discussed but not to excess.  History can be taught as an exciting novel and not as a succession of dry dates and places.

 

History cannot be taught in a vacuum.  The social background must be taken up.  A good analysis of satirical literature as it relates to the politics of the time would be most enlightening.  For example: Alice in Wonderland, with the Tenniel illustrations, should be covered in the context of the history of England at the time explaining the pickle being taken out of the government.  There is an "Illustrated Alice" by, I believe, Martin Gardner, that would make an excellent text book here.

 

Now, to fit into any school curriculum, history must often be abridged.  However, nothing stops supplementary reading lists (for extra credit).  However, political censorship is an absolute no-no.

 

IMHO, patriotism is a general evil.