I've been tasked to teach Social Studies in Summer School this year. My primary endorsement and majority of my teaching experience has been Science. I have an endorsement in Social Studies, and only credits short of a BA in History to go along with my BA's in Geology and Archaeology. Problem is, where is Howard Zinn when you need him.
Left to the traditional textbooks, which whitewash history and distort the truth. Zinn's textbook," A Peoples Textbook of History," told a version of American history closer to the truth and reality.
Little of what we read in the traditional textbook is anywhere close to reality. It is grnerally told from a white, christian perspective. It promotes the concept that Europeans had a right to settle the New World. The texts tend to grossly underplay the role, rights, and deprevations weighed upon the indigenous populations and blacks by Europeans. It is any wonder, as most academic textbooks are edited and printed in Texas.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.If the school provides a specific textbook you have to use, you may as well go through it and teach the kids everything it got wrong. Which grade and historical period is it?
FreethoughtKaty
Level 7
June 13, 2019
0
Conquering and expansion was the thing among of all humans from the dawn of humanity. Natives warred with each other and took each others lands. People throughout history have been shitty to each other.
You use the word truth but truth is based on perspective. While I agree that some history books are whitewashed. I only say that because historically important non-europeans rarely get a footnote. So if you want to add flavor to the class add some of those figures back in.
Biosteelman
Level 7
Apr 23, 2019
1
True, but inter-tribal wsrfare is not necessarily the same as Imperialism. Different scale and different motivations and agendas as weell as impacts.
@t1nick Isn't it though. Agricultural based societies all behave similar. Nomadic tribes are also similar. That's why agriculture based like Aztec, Incas, and Mayas were much more like imperialism.
I don't think Texas is any different than anywhere else. We have screwed over just about every race on this planet at some point in time. If you are trying to right the wrongs we have done, telling the truth about Native Americans is what I would pick, because I think we screwed them over the most. Blacks were slaves, they knew they were slaves, and we treated them with some care, because they had value. Native Americans had more value dead than alive, or at least their scalp did. We did every evil thing we could do to them. Germ warfare, target practice, we put them on the most useless land we could find and told them it was their's forever, or at least until we found something usefull, then we would pack them up and march them to the next most useless piece of land we could find. But that's just me.
MikeFlora
Level 7
Apr 22, 2019
1
A little correction, blacks may or not have been aware what constituted a slave and their future when originnaly brought over. They certanly did after arriving.
I teach native americans and always cover their history extensively. I have taugth Native americans for 20 of my 30 years of teaching.
That sea-stead couple off the coast of Thailand could prompt a debate.
(Link to CNN included but it seemed to a want to auto run a video.)
It is in international waters and is a small fishing hut sized thing.
The couple wanted to just live off the grid and away from government. Seems harmless?
Well, Thailand has revoked the American man's passport. His girlfriend is Thai. They are in hiding under a death penalty.
They see what they have done as a sovereign nation. Especially since he was inviting other people to build in the same area. And how many people could you have in a permanent community before forming some sort of government would be a necessity anyway?
BufftonBeotch
Level 8
Apr 22, 2019
1
I think it was'96 when everybody made a deal that 200 miles off shore is for natural resources
@MikeFlora And wup I did not include the link.
Sounds as though you may be familiar with the situation though.
That is a tough situation but also a great opportunity. If nothing else, to introduce students to the idea that “the winners (or the people with power) write the textbooks” and that there are other perspectives to be had if they look.
But not on YouTube ?
A2Jennifer
Level 8
Apr 22, 2019
1
You Tube is an easy out I know. There is good content if one searches hard enough. My students need more reading emphasiszed than videos. I want to locate original source material and speeches as part of my curriculum.
@t1nick be careful not to put your job at risk though - you can’t teach them anything if you get fired for teaching them the truth!
@A2Jennifer thanks for the warning. Im pretty affective at understanding limitations and sensibilities of my community. Being a Native community, they are more supportive of "the truth" than mainsteam schools.
@t1nick oh yeah. I work with a native population in Michigan and there is definitely heightened awareness of how “their” history has been left out of the books.
@A2Jennifer which tribe? I worked with Hopi, Navajo, and Rio Grande Pueblos. 20 years in community and have lived on two reservations and Santa Fe Indian School
@t1nick I’m in southeast Michigan and partner with the urban Indian health center in Detroit. We have folks from many different tribes.
@A2Jennifer I hear you. We had 25 tribes and 33 languages represented at Santa Fe indian School when I was teaching there.
It sounds like an interesting challenge. I wish you well with it.
Stephanie99
Level 8
Apr 21, 2019
0
TY. It should be fun.
I also wove true stories into history which no textbooks show, pointing out that two major factors in our winning the Revolutionary Ware were a madman and a fungus. The madman turned the battle of Saratoga, and the fungus profoundly influenced the behavior of Cornwallis at Yorktown. If you are interested, I would be glad to share the two stories.
wordywalt
Level 9
Apr 21, 2019
2
Would love it. That's the type of connections and tangents I love
The Saratoga story " While doing some personal research on the Revolutionary War I ran across a story about Benedict Arnold (before he turned coat), a half-wrt named Hon Yost, and the Battle of Saratoga.
The British had a three pronged plan to entrap American forces at Saratoga and destroy the force. Burgoyne was to come over from New York City. A second force was to come up from the south. A third force composed a small British group and several thousand Indian allies was to come south from Canada. Before coming on th Saratoga, the latter group was to stop at a small American fort, besiege and take it. The large Indian force had the fort under siege and it was close to falling.
Benedict Arnold learned of the force besieging the fort, but knew that he did not have a force of sufficient strength to mount an attack. He came up with a brilliant plan. He knew of a local British sympathsizer, a half wit named Hon Yost. Arnold had Yost taken into custody. . Arnold stripped the clothes off Yost, shot his clothes full of holes, ranted and raved to Yost about how was going to go over to the fort and absolutely destroy the force from Canada. Then he gave Yost back his clothes and let him go. .
Yost did exactly what Arnold wanted him to do. He ran all the way to the fort to warn the British. He broke into the British and Indian camp late at night completely panicked and with the air of a madman. . The Indians were highly superstitious about crazy people and were terrified by Yost. When dawn broke the next morning, the entire Indian force was gone. The small British unit could not even take the fort and went back to Canada.
@t1nick The second story came from a prominent botanist who specialized in economic botany. I already knew that that Cornwallis had been conducting a campaign in the south, but was being besieged by constant hit-and-run attacks which were both irksome and damaging. Cornwallis decided to abandon his very wagon train of supplies so that he could be more mobile and deal with the ambushes more effectively. As winter was approaching when Cornwallis reached his base at Yorktown, he knew that he did not even have sufficient supplies to last through the winter, so he took his force into winter quarters, expecting a resupply before winter.
A British Fleet left England in plenty of time to reach Yorktown with the fresh supplies. On the way to America, the fleet hit a bad storm. But, a fungus had crept into the timbers of the British fleet an had greatly weakened those timbers -- and had gone undetected. During the storm, many of the ships suffered broken timbers and the entire fleet was forced to limp into New York harbor for repairs.
That delay proved terribly costly while the British ships were undergoing repairs, a French fleet (our allies) sailed into Yorktown harbor and blocked access of the British fleet to Yorktown. Cornwallis knew that he did not even have enough supplies to last through the winter, surrendered -- ending the Revolutionary War. (In a class I had with the botany professor, he told of personally examining the remains of the British fleet and finding unmistakable evidence that the damage had been caused by a fungus).
I'm guessing the curriculum will probably be pretty rigid.
You might be able to allude something along the line of ---> the answer that will pass the test is not always the truth.
BufftonBeotch
Level 8
Apr 21, 2019
1
My curriculum is never rigid. I am very hands-on and always searching for interesting approaches. I hope to teach US History by using the music of each time period in the country's history to show what the person's of the time found important.
@t1nick That's good then.
Most schools courses do not allow flexibility.
@BufftonBeotch Fortunately my school trusts its teachers
then teach them man's true social history. show the migration of the various hominids from africa and what/who they became ... then how that changed at the end of our last ice age and how those hunter/farmers changed man socially. Then tie in communities and gods and religion and other fictions for identity a la Yuval Harari's "Sapiens". Just make damn sure you teach them about the first council at Nicea after Constantine defeated Rome. That is a crucial key in understanding what really happened as opposed to what we're told that happened.
JeffMesser
Level 8
Apr 21, 2019
2
That's a wide swath you plow. i am qualified to teach about earlly hominids due to my Antrhropology background. I make references to the Council of Nicea and the Council of Rome ( writing of the New Testament) at offhand times throughout the year. I never hold back in my teaching. I may approach politically to avoid endangerieng my job, but I do not hold back. My students know theycan ask anything and I'll answer honestly, unless it is inappropriate.
@t1nick I play this game called "follow the Book of Enoch". very enlightening. I wish some teacher had the insight to tell me about homo erectus fleeing africa before homo heidelbergensis and the denisovans possible physical traits as giants with white skin and red hair or even the superarchaic mDNA along coastal china.
@JeffMesser Look to environmrntal change and populations being funneled and isolated in pockets prior to their departure from Africa. I'm not sure I've heard the same description of the Denisovans as you desribe. Have to look into it.
@t1nick check out the size of the last 2 denisovan molars. they were rather large beings.
@JeffMesser gotcha. Thanks. Reminisce of Gigantopithicus, Zinjanthropus, or Homo pekingnensis ( not saying they are related, just saying. Lol).
@t1nick no. not that extreme. but I do believe that we are discovering that the denisovans had some genetic variances (noted in malaysian divers and tibetan sherpas) and may uncover more. I just find it fascinating because the homo erectus that fled africa and eventually populated coastal china branched off prior to homo heidelbergensis which makes it different genetically than homo neandertalis and homo sapien both. we've seen the difference this meant in florensis (hobbit man). I just wonder if some of those ancient tales of chinese lore might have been borne from actual hominids that existed from that line.
@JeffMesser. agreed. Geographic isolation allows evolution, genetic drift, and natural selection to take some interesting turns.
As a former teacher certified in both science and social studies, the first thing I would say is that doing justice to the teaching of history in a summer school setting is most difficult. If I were offered that choice, I would decline.
Second, you are right. Texas state textbook selection processes are the most whitewashed and biased in the entire country-- and have been for close to a century. . When I taught U.S. History years ago, I never followed the textbook closely. Instead, I asked the questions that need to be asked, introduced information from many sources and asked the students to think for themselves. I also used both case study and inquiry methods to get the students really involved in thinking for themselves. I also tried to make the study of history a multidisciplinary matter -- examining and weaving together the political, economic, social and cultural contexts to give a much richer picture of each historical period. But all this was in Florida, a long time ago.
wordywalt
Level 9
Apr 21, 2019
1
History is cultural movemnts, political ideas. philoshopical movements, economic ideas.without this there is no history.
Textbooks reflect the white privilege of their authors. If such a thing as white privilege could be acknowledged.
schwinnrider
Level 6
Apr 21, 2019
1
Ohhh a bit dodgy. Probably a ‘privilege of no colour’ would be the correct PC terminology!
They definitely reflect white privelegle. All commercail textbooks do to a certain extent.
Just tell them at the beginning of the class that the curriculum has been selected by the government to keep them in line with the governments interests and everything you learn about the past is handpicked to guarantee they all grow up to be good, non-thinking, hardworking drones.
Alternatively you could:
Then make sure to scare them by saying that they will not be able to get anywhere in life unless they pass.
Always make sure that wrote memorization is the only method you teach by. It's very important that they learn the material exactly as it was meant to be learned.
Last but not least, never deviate from the course work in any way whatsoever. In fact, don't even suggest that there is any more to learn than what you tell them and NO MATTER WHAT never tell them that some of it may be misrepresented or wrong!
Happy_Killbot
Level 7
Apr 21, 2019
2
Brilliant, and I suspect, very will observed posting
lol. To the first point you made, I teach Native Americans and they already know this.
To your second point they hear this all the time. To be turthful, they do need individuals that can bridge the gap in understanding between their culyure and the mainstream culture. But the trend in the last few years is in their favor on this point.
To your third point, I never use memorization. I use reserach, extrapolation, and problem solving. I hate to memorize, soi I assume they do as well. With Smartphones and computers, why the need to memorize. If you use it everyday in your work, you'll memorize it anyway by repeated usage.
I've never followed the curriculum. I have written my own curriculum for the last 30 years. I follow the Common Core Standards, partially becuase I have to and partially because I believe in them.
@t1nick sarcasm is hard on the internet
@Happy_Killbot so true. lol
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