Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Sunday, February 16, 2003, at 02:39 PM, bdcolen wrote: > The problem is, Matthew, that when High School kids get one of Zinn's > textbook they don't have the education, maturity, or experience to judge > his perspective and to take much of it with the proverbial grain of > salt. Reading selections from Zinn along with a standard text might make > sense, and make for good discussion. But Zinn by himself? No way. Zinn by himself is no worse than a regular history book by itself, which whitewashes our past to help indoctrinate the youth into being How many history books really cover the genocide of American Indians? American foreign policy in the 20th century? The other side of Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Most history books tend to diminish the role of slavery in the Civil War and diminish the racism of the North and in Abe Lincoln. I forget the author's name (Loewen, I think), but there's a fairly good account of the half-truths and disinformation in American history texts, _Lies My Teacher Told Me_ Ideally, as you say, history classes would be about discussion, and comparing two viewpoints. But from what I remember of high school history, it was memorize some names and dates from this text, and remember them for a few days. > B. D. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html