Neto wrote: ↑Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:26 pm
Maybe schools don't use history books in print form anymore, but a school system cannot purchase new books every year. I don't recall what class it was in, but I remember having current events study when I was in HS. (Of course that was the Vietnam era, Nixon impeachment, etc. I think it might have been Government class, but not sure.)
Well yes. Schools definitely don’t buy new books every year. You are lucky if they are less than 10 years old. Which doesn’t much matter in math, physics, languages, and English. It matters more in biology and subjects like current events.
Here in this state, students are required to have 3 years of high school social studies which is usually world history, US history, and a third elective which is usually geography, US government, economics, or any social studies related AP class of which there are several.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
I’m just messing with you. But history isn’t about what happened last summer. They rarely cover much that happened in the past 50 years or so. Maybe the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War and Cold War but that is about where things end.
What are you talking about? I teach history. I’ve taught it in Pennsylvania and I teach it in Honduras. All of my textbooks begin American history with proto-Americans crossing the Bering land bridge and then move forward from there. We spend quite a bit of time on the various and sundry atrocities committed by various and sundry peoples. Ive taught from and have been taught from (when I was in H.S.) Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History…”. It’s sloppy and myopic history to be sure but it’s a great tool for bringing in marginalized perspectives. That is to say in all of my experience in the learning and teaching of history, I’ve never experienced a “glossing over” of the unseemly parts as it were. What examples of history textbooks are familiar with that only teach from the Cold War to Present?
No, I’m saying the opposite.
History textbooks start way back in the dawn of time. Bering land bridge, etc. And more or less END with the ending of the Cold War in the 1990s, Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War, etc. They don’t cover very recent events like 2020 BLM protests that Falco was talking about when he wanted to discuss how socialist revolutionaries are inserting themselves into the BLM movement or some such.
My daughter is in world history this year, not American history but I’m curious to check where her textbook ends. The AP US history textbook that my other daughter used ended more or less with 9-11 which is 20 years ago now, but they never got that far in the class. I think she basically got up to the Vietnam War and Reagan Revolution. The current AP US history subject outline basically ends with the end of the Cold War and 9-11 and the start of the War on Terror and Iraq/Afghanistan interventions.
What are you talking about? I teach history. I’ve taught it in Pennsylvania and I teach it in Honduras. All of my textbooks begin American history with proto-Americans crossing the Bering land bridge and then move forward from there. We spend quite a bit of time on the various and sundry atrocities committed by various and sundry peoples. Ive taught from and have been taught from (when I was in H.S.) Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History…”. It’s sloppy and myopic history to be sure but it’s a great tool for bringing in marginalized perspectives. That is to say in all of my experience in the learning and teaching of history, I’ve never experienced a “glossing over” of the unseemly parts as it were. What examples of history textbooks are familiar with that only teach from the Cold War to Present?
No, I’m saying the opposite.
History textbooks start way back in the dawn of time. Bering land bridge, etc. And more or less END with the ending of the Cold War in the 1990s, Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War, etc. They don’t cover very recent events like 2020 BLM protests that Falco was talking about when he wanted to discuss how socialist revolutionaries are inserting themselves into the BLM movement or some such.
My daughter is in world history this year, not American history but I’m curious to check where her textbook ends. The AP US history textbook that my other daughter used ended more or less with 9-11 which is 20 years ago now, but they never got that far in the class. I think she basically got up to the Vietnam War and Reagan Revolution. The current AP US history subject outline basically ends with the end of the Cold War and 9-11 and the start of the War on Terror and Iraq/Afghanistan interventions.
I misread your post, I’m sorry.
No worries! I figured you did.
I'm looking at my daughter's AP World History textbook right now. It is copyrighted 2008. The last chapter is "The End of Empire and a World Without Borders" which ranges from Indian Independence, the Vietnam War, African decolonization, and the Iranian Revolution up to globalization (GATT, IMF, WTO etc) with only the briefest mention of 9-11 and the Iraq war. Basically nothing from the 21st Century.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Schools shouldn’t teach current events. History is history, and current events get far too close to politics and opinions, which public schools should stay out of.
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 9:57 am
Schools shouldn’t teach current events. History is history, and current events get far too close to politics and opinions, which public schools should stay out of.
We can't have students forming opinions in your world. Is that it? Schools should teach critical thinking and analytical skills which students can apply to any topic including current events.
And, in any event, most states mandate some sort of civics education requirement which necessitates covering current events and topics like elections. You would rather they get their civics education on Twitter and TikTok? Or would you prefer we raise an even more uneducated population when it comes to basic civics?
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 9:57 am
Schools shouldn’t teach current events. History is history, and current events get far too close to politics and opinions, which public schools should stay out of.
We can't have students forming opinions in your world. Is that it? Schools should teach critical thinking and analytical skills which students can apply to any topic including current events.
And, in any event, most states mandate some sort of civics education requirement which necessitates covering current events and topics like elections. You would rather they get their civics education on Twitter and TikTok? Or would you prefer we raise an even more uneducated population when it comes to basic civics?
If students are active on Twitter or TikTok the battle is already lost in most cases. A teacher can't really compete with influences that powerful.
Josh wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 9:57 am
Schools shouldn’t teach current events. History is history, and current events get far too close to politics and opinions, which public schools should stay out of.
We can't have students forming opinions in your world. Is that it? Schools should teach critical thinking and analytical skills which students can apply to any topic including current events.
And, in any event, most states mandate some sort of civics education requirement which necessitates covering current events and topics like elections. You would rather they get their civics education on Twitter and TikTok? Or would you prefer we raise an even more uneducated population when it comes to basic civics?
If students are active on Twitter or TikTok the battle is already lost in most cases. A teacher can't really compete with influences that powerful.
So you would write off 98% of the students in the US and abroad as “lost” because they have access to social media?
Previous generations of oldsters said the same thing about my generation in the 1960s and 1970s due to TV. And they said the same thing about my parents and grandparents generation due to radio and movies and comic books or whatever. Yet somehow the world goes on.
0 x
A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
We can't have students forming opinions in your world. Is that it? Schools should teach critical thinking and analytical skills which students can apply to any topic including current events.
And, in any event, most states mandate some sort of civics education requirement which necessitates covering current events and topics like elections. You would rather they get their civics education on Twitter and TikTok? Or would you prefer we raise an even more uneducated population when it comes to basic civics?
If students are active on Twitter or TikTok the battle is already lost in most cases. A teacher can't really compete with influences that powerful.
So you would write off 98% of the students in the US and abroad as “lost” because they have access to social media?
Previous generations of oldsters said the same thing about my generation in the 1960s and 1970s due to TV. And they said the same thing about my parents and grandparents generation due to radio and movies and comic books or whatever. Yet somehow the world goes on.
Teaching current events to that 98% is going to be a lost cost. History is much more important, as it will shape their interpretation of current events, rather than just trying to force a viewpoint upon them.
If students are active on Twitter or TikTok the battle is already lost in most cases. A teacher can't really compete with influences that powerful.
So you would write off 98% of the students in the US and abroad as “lost” because they have access to social media?
Previous generations of oldsters said the same thing about my generation in the 1960s and 1970s due to TV. And they said the same thing about my parents and grandparents generation due to radio and movies and comic books or whatever. Yet somehow the world goes on.
Teaching current events to that 98% is going to be a lost cost. History is much more important, as it will shape their interpretation of current events, rather than just trying to force a viewpoint upon them.
Most kids are smarter than you give them credit for. And most teachers take great pains to avoid forcing a particular viewpoint on students. Although yes, there are some bad teachers on both the left and right who let their opinions color their teaching too much. Mostly when they do that they undermine their own teaching because they lose half the class. I see it all the time.
0 x
A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
We can't have students forming opinions in your world. Is that it? Schools should teach critical thinking and analytical skills which students can apply to any topic including current events.
And, in any event, most states mandate some sort of civics education requirement which necessitates covering current events and topics like elections. You would rather they get their civics education on Twitter and TikTok? Or would you prefer we raise an even more uneducated population when it comes to basic civics?
If students are active on Twitter or TikTok the battle is already lost in most cases. A teacher can't really compete with influences that powerful.
So you would write off 98% of the students in the US and abroad as “lost” because they have access to social media?
Previous generations of oldsters said the same thing about my generation in the 1960s and 1970s due to TV. And they said the same thing about my parents and grandparents generation due to radio and movies and comic books or whatever. Yet somehow the world goes on.
Do you think Fox News and CNN on TV has resulted in a more well informed, educated populace?