American K-12 Textbooks

[chequita guevara]

Re: Rabble Rousing on the Right

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
They are wrong of course. Howard Zinn provides a useful alternative to the crap in high school texts. However, more than one teacher has seen their contract not renewed for straying from the party line, especially if recommending Zinn's People's History.

It's against the law to use Zinn's book in Florida.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Elok
I got to the part where he described pre-columbian America as a utopian paradise for the natives,

Given that he was only talking about the Arawaks, what's your problem with it? The Caribbean islands were and still are what most people think of when they think of paradise.

[Elok]

Only the Arawaks? He seemed to be implying that it was that way for the whole new world...even if it were only the Arawaks, the whole tone was grossly inappropriate for a history book. Here are the heroes and here are the big bad villains, clearly marked for your convenience.

[chequita guevara]

Do you honostly think there is any possible way not to view the Spanish invasion as a really, really bad thing for the peoples of the Caribbean? It's like accusing a book about the Nazi Holocaust of not being neutral. Silly man.

In oter words, the reality was so horrible that any attempt at so-called "neutrality" is nothing more than an attempt to white-wash the crimes of Spain, which is being biased towards Spain. If one tries to report objectively, the facts are biased towards those who were the victims.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Do you honostly think there is any possible way not to view the Spanish invasion as a really, really bad thing for the peoples of the Caribbean? It's like accusing a book about the Nazi Holocaust of not being neutral. Silly man.

For the Caribbean peoples? Yes, it was a Bad Thing.

For the "civilized" people in Mesoamerica and the Andes....errr....hmmm....


No, the Aztecs and Incas were just has bat**** crazy as the Inquisition. The Aztecs worse so.

[chequita guevara]

Maybe yes, but the chapter in question is about the Caribbean. And by the standards of the time in Europe, the Incas weren't that bad. The Aztecs were down there with the Mongols, though.

[Lonestar]

Incans were pretty bad. Maybe on par to their European counterparts. Now, were they materially more bloody-minded as rulers than the Europeans...mmmm...maybe not.


The Aztecs and other MesoAmericans though, beat out the Europeans.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Incans were pretty bad. Maybe on par to their European counterparts. Now, were they materially more bloody-minded as rulers than the Europeans...mmmm...maybe not.

The Inca had a more centralized system of power than the Europeans at the time. They were masters at mass population upheavals to serve their political ends. Whole populations were moved about.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Re: Re: Rabble Rousing on the Right

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
It's against the law to use Zinn's book in Florida.

cite?

[Gatekeeper]

Re: Rabble Rousing on the Right

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
Gatekeeper, is that really a Voltaire quote? Sounds similar to others I've heard.

That quote is right on point here, the "rabble" is already roused. Unfortunately, its much more right-wing than the consensus on this thread. In both Texas and Florida, special organizations with patriotic names monitor those texts to assure that the texts say what that group wants them to say. They have money to influence elections, an organized membership to write to the textbook makers, and a support structure based in the Christian right. They have their own media, headquarters, members on the official state textbook committees, and politicians that support their aims and their belief system. That's why the textbooks are so screwed up. The same loosely-affiliated group of "moral guardians" also has members on the California textbook committee.

Note, they are well organized but reasonably dicrete, no really nutty stuff is put in for fear of attracting the attention of the media and the public. This is NOT a conspiracy theory. The groups are not secret and are reported on fairly regularly, although nothing I can put my hands on here at work. They think they are doing the right thing, fighting the good fight against secular humanism.

They are wrong of course. Howard Zinn provides a useful alternative to the crap in high school texts. However, more than one teacher has seen their contract not renewed for straying from the party line, especially if recommending Zinn's People's History.

Sometimes I think the best way to teach history would be to have a generalized course in one's freshman year, with more specialized courses in the sophomore through senior years (kind of like what they do at the college level). Multiple classes usually mean more sources, which means it's less likely "history" can be monopolized by any one group of would-be regulators.

Of course, all of this requires time and money, which are assets school districts seem to be lacking in one or both. Hmm. Heh. Maybe a new kind of high school ought to require *four* years of history, math and science with a minimum of *two* years of computer science and foreign language. That'd still leave time for other "less intensive" courses (i.e. electives). I imagine magnet schools fill that role now. But maybe it should be expanded?

Oh, well. I'm sort of rambling here, as I said I'd come back to the thread and I did, so ...

Gatekeeper

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Odin


A People's History of the US should be required reading for all high school US history classes!

It was in mine and I went to a US high school.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by GePap
This is why kids should read books other than text books.

For the longest time I was not interested in reading anything at all, because of the experience I had with the things I was forced to read in school.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by General Ludd


For the longest time I was not interested in reading anything at all, because of the experience I had with the things I was forced to read in school.

Maybe you were just too stupid to know how to read 'em.

[Lodi]

The elite want fairy tales for their tools. Can't have independent minded soldiers for the upcoming massive wars of conquest, can they?

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Lodi
The elite want fairy tales for their tools. Can't have independent minded soldiers for the upcoming massive wars of conquest, can they?

I'm sure that's exactly what the state of California was thinking.