Understanding and facing the history is an essential first step of alleviating the indelible stain slavery has left on the country.
It also allows the future of America's history to reflect significant change and for Black children to feel affirmed in the education.
bout figures like Harriet Tubman and good Samaritans who helped slaves reach freedom in the underground railroad ― before they learn about the horrors of enslavement.
Textbooks avoid talking about the negatives of American history but only try to highlight the positives. Although this is good in affirming Black students, not talking about the negatives will not teach white students what really happened and further allow perpetuation of racism.
Textbooks do not embody history at its best
Textbooks house ideologies created by people who have white power.
patriotic and others who say it isn’t patriotic enough
This depends on who the patriotism "belongs" to.
Jen Kalaidis explored the consequences of declining social-studies instruction in an article for The Atlantic in 2013
This makes me think about Ethnic Studies courses. Not that they should replace social studies courses but how the topics missed in social studies courses should be taught in Ethnic studies courses.
textbook accurately referred to the slave trade and its brutality in more than a dozen other instances.
This is hard to believe because textbooks in Texas are edited differently to accommodate to the states "needs" and desired representation of American history.
black Texas student named Coby Burren, who subsequently texted it to his mom, Roni-Dean Burren. “Was real hard workers, wasn’t we,” he wrote. Roni-Dean quickly took to Facebook,
I think this is the correct response to this kind of issue in textbooks. The students history and pain was being minimized.
workers from Africa
This kind of language in textbooks serves to sanitize and desensitize people to slavery and today's racism.
says student discomfort is a big challenge when talking honestly about slavery.
But how can we make this discomfort acceptable?
many reported feeling uncomfortable teaching slavery and said they get very little help from their textbooks or state standards.
This lack of support in textbooks is what prompts people to write papers like our readings. This is why I think that open source textbooks can be very helpful in supporting teachers.
results that suggest many young people know little about slavery's origins and the government's role in perpetuating it.
In another article that I came across, they said that most of the students in the southern states do not know that slavery was a cause of the civil war.
The Teaching Tolerance project began in 1991, according to its website, "to reduce prejudice, improve intergroup relations and support equitable school experiences for our nation's children."
I think there needs be more open sources available for students to explore. Textbooks are obviously becoming more bland to avoid political conflict and are very expensive. An open source is not only cheaper but can allow for more accurate representation of history.
but how do students discriminate among various sources of information?
I think this is where teachers need to come in and play a role of guiding students through the large amount of material. Which is also why I think it is critical for teachers to also receive training in identifying and correcting falsified history and receive training in Critical race theory training.
history can be a weapon.
History constructed by people in power can be used and are being used as weapons against people of color.
"Now, you know, some ninth-graders, especially black male ninth-graders, are pretty big, and I worried that teachers, especially white lady teachers, would have trouble controlling their classes with material like this in the book."
Out of FEAR, they reject the book. To protect their own people. This is a direct representation that white privilege is still prominent to this day.
Well, Reconstruction was the period right after the Civil War when blacks took over the government of the Southern states. But they were too soon out of slavery and so they screwed up and white folks had to take control again."
Children growing up with misinformation is probably the most dangerous thing for the country. These students will become voters which will drive in which direction of growth this country will go.
n doing so, Lies My Teacher Told Me overturned one assumption embedded in the history classes I'd been sitting through all my life: that the United States is constantly ascending from greatness to greatness.
History textbooks will always come from a nationalistic perspective. There is nothing in today's context that suggests that the country is ascending from greatness to even more greatness.
usually by soft-pedaling, oversimplifying and burying the thorny drama and uncertainties of the past under a blanket of dull, voice-of-God narration.
This is exactly like how the reading expresses that the history of the enslavement of Africans is not just a one day class. It is simplified and briefed over as if it is insignificant to current day America when in reality, it is one of the most significant parts of American history. It has resounding effects even today. It is not a topic that teachers should only spend one day on.
You know, they know that these textbooks are imperfect. They're always looking for quality primary source materials
I think this depends on the teachers perspective on history as well.
And in California, Democrats really control that process. And the opposite is true in Texas, where Republicans have dominated the process.
Very obvious political influence.
publishers customize editions of these textbooks for each state.
Again, publishers will accommodate to the needs of whoever is bringing the money in.
does not explicitly talk about race.
I think a lot of textbooks kind of beat around the bush or walk around the problem.
California requires children to learn about housing discrimination against African Americans and other groups
It says "REQUIRES".
social studies textbooks in California and Texas
This isn't surprising since the political climate is different.
these standards became the outline for publishers to sell books to the Texas market
This was seen in the reading. Textbook publishers follow where the money is going to come in from
he says she'll give her kids is how textbooks can tell different versions of history.
I think students should be taught that history can be represented inaccurately.
Teaching the actual history of slavery does not necessitate skewing, omitting, or lying about what happened in this country; it takes only an exploration of the primary source documents to give one a sense of what it was and the legacy that it has left.
This further highlights the need for more open sources with accurate information regarding American history. Teachers should feel more comfortable with allowing even younger students to explore with primary sources and question the events that conflict with each other.
indoctrination.” It was strange to realize that providing a holistic account of what slavery was, and the horror it wrought, might be understood as indoctrination—
Telling the truth about history isn't indoctrination. Infact, the very opposite, creating and writing history in skewed way to support and validate white privilege, is indoctrination.
We want our sons and daughters to know that they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world.
This goes back to the concept of how history books teach students that America will keep ascending into greatness. This isn't teaching students about the truth of American history but teaching students to practice ignorance.
“patriotic education” in our schools, and seemed to downplay the centrality of slavery, and perhaps any sort of oppression, to America’s founding.
It is really interesting to see that people are able to separate slavery and the founding of America so easily when slavery is the one of the most important forms of institutionalization in the history of America.
President Donald Trump denounced the way “the left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story with deceptions, falsehoods, and lies,
The sanitization of history still happens today and happens in a very obvious way.
Check your sources before introducing any resource to children, and review your lesson plan with a variety of trusted educators or parents.
I think this is also very important. To make sure the information you are teaching is accurate.
Conversations about skin color begin in preschool.
I think this supports for ethnic studies classes in elementary schools. Kids are able to differentiate based on race starting from very early ages.
Truth isn’t offensive; allowing fear to prevent education is offensive.
In one of the readings, someone did not want a textbook that educated students about the truth of slavery to be used their state schools. And the reason was that they were afraid that the "larger" African American students might make the white female teacher uncomfortable to teach the truth about slavery. This is the kind of fear that is not acceptable.
educators can perpetuate years of misinformation and hurtful stereotypes, or they can empower young people with knowledge.
I think teachers often forget how much power they have when it comes to empowering students.
which was about the state of Michigan and how it had a huge battle between conservatives and liberals
It's disheartening to see how deeply involved education is in politics.
celebrate the founding fathers
This is controversial but students aren't being allowed to explore the idea that it is controversial. The students need to be given the power to figure out for themselves what their country is really made up of.
but are also helping to shape a generation of future voters.
This is critical. Educating students about American history as it truly is is crucial to moving America in an upward growth.
The books have the same publisher. They credit the same authors. But they are customized for students in different states, and their contents sometimes diverge in ways that reflect the nation’s deepest partisan divides.
This highlights that textbook publishing is a business. It's not meant for the good of properly educating students the American history.
o far, only 6% of schools are using these open resources.
I think more schools should join because it allows for easy access to more accurate material.
Some schools are starting to use open source educational materials instead of traditional textbooks.
I think this change is necessary so that "textbooks" change the content to represent a more accurate history.
nd they're doing everything in their power to make sure that students keep buying new textbooks. To save money college students started buying used textbooks for cheaper or rented them from bookstores. But publishers took notice and started bundling new textbooks with special codes that restricted access.
The issue of using textbooks even from a financial perspective needs to be changed at an institutional level. Why pay so much for something that's going to teach you from a narrow minded perspective?
lose to $500 a year on textbooks.
The readings also talked about how the pages of textbooks have increased. The page count increased but there is still little information about slavery. Them where are those pages being used on?
deas, attitudes and philosophy as well, as in the case of the Island Trees school district in Nassau County, where the school board removed 11 books from library shelves on the ground that they were “anti‐American
Censorship doesn't just happen within the text but also by removing certain books from the public eye.
board’s approved standards were roundly criticized as distorted history.
These standards are rather difficult to change.
psychological
They say children's books that were about colored children gave a sense of self affirmation. I am sure that textbooks could do the same.
But the NAACP pointed out that the textbooks they criticized were not just insulting, but inaccurate
A lot of textbooks have a skewed perspective on the history of African Americans and LatinX members.
hat black activists were being “hypersensitive.
ridiculous
worried about disturbing children
Which students? Because I'm sure the owners of that horrible history are already traumatized by it in one way or another.
what they would have to learn about our country. It’s ugly.
But there's no good reason to avoid it
states are not required to meet academic content standards for teaching social studies and United States history.
This is like the Minnesota article about how the standards are bad.
And now, many history teachers don’t even use textbooks. They’re using online resources
This also refers to one of the readings that suggests teachers to avoid using textbooks as their main source of material. They should have students delve into primary sources themselves.
true American history because African American history is American history
It is not taught very much and if it is probably does not do a good job.
They dismissed the slave narratives as propaganda, downplayed the history of Africans before slavery, and ignored the work of African American scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois and others
Wow... propaganda.
Anything outside of the political narrative was not considered history and was not taugh
This is very messed up as it shows that censorship has a lot of power.
The main feature of white supremacy is the assumption that people with Anglo Saxon backgrounds are the primacy, the first order of humanity. Van Evrie, however, saw people of African descent as essential to do “the white man’s work,” and were designed to do so “by nature and god.”
This was included in textbooks in subtle ways in recent days as well.
Americans tend to see racism as a result of Southern slavery, and this thinking has all kinds of problems. First of all, slavery was in the North as well as in the South, and the people who formed the idea of American identity were not Southern slave owners, they were Northerners
This kind of changing and erasing some parts of what actually happened historically makes some white people look " nicer" than others.
What I realized from his book, and from the subsequent ones, was how they defined “American” as white and only as white.
This is how white power remained and was ingrained into future generations.
institution of slavery, despite the fact that it was a central American institution. There were no African Americans ever mentioned
I think this goes along with the idea that textbooks are being sanitized.
Students must be able to ask questions and express curiosity in order to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their peers
This asking of questions regarding theirselves begins with children's literature.
Elementary education teacher candidates, especially, should be given direct instruction on selecting appropriate literature, as children’s books are such an important part of any elementary classroom
This is tough because some teachers will have their own opinions on children's books with diversity.
The Association for Library Service to Children (2017) lists a plethora of awards that either they distribute or are affiliated with the organization that distributes the award.
I do question the accuracy of these children's books. Depending on who is on the panel that determines who gets these wards, the accuracy/ quality may not actually be good.
A negative, or nonexistent, portrayal of a child’s own race, gender, or disability may go unnoticed by adults; however, the child does not know it is negative or inaccurate and therefore takes it at face value
This is really bad. This then sticks with the child, possibly, for the rest of their life. Children's literature really sets up how a child may treat people of color in the future.
However, certain books are regarded at a higher level because of specific literary awards. There are several book awards that recognize excellence in children’s literature, but the two most well-known are the Newbery Medal award and the Caldecott Medal award.
Most of these awards are given to stories that feature white characters.
It is their introduction to community outside the family and to the world. It is the breeding ground for much of the empathy and enmity we carry around as adults
This relates to one of the readings where, ethnic studies doesn't have to just be within the high school and college setting. It should start when the children are most moldable and are more open to accepting new ideas.
This is important because it doesn’t help much to have good minority representation and gender balance if all the familiar stereotypes are simply reinforced by that representation.
This is super important to check when in comes to children's literature. Stereotypes are not accurate depictions of what these cultures are actually like.
but also the inaccuracy and uneven quality
Even when children's books that are centered around different cultures, it's often very inaccurate. This can also be connected to the disney movies as well.
n the infographic, children of colour gaze skeptically into small and cracked mirrors while, nearby, a white child — and a bear — smile into full-length ones
This is very true. Even in story books where they use animals, the activities they do are totally not relatable to the students of color.
therefore a means of self-affirmation
This means that due to the lack of books about colored children and their culture, they are not being self-affirmed for being who they are. This also applies to textbooks as well
The group that studied the ethnic and geographic enrollment in AP courses presented their findings to classes of freshmen to encourage them to take more of the college-level classes.
This is another factor that prevents students from taking AP classes. They're not aware of it and they're scared to take it.
standardized ethnic-studies curriculum in high schools statewide
I'm not sure how ethnic studies can be standardized. It's almost as if you're saying, " yeah, we can just teach them the bare minimum of what they need to know about other people's cultures and generalize the critical analysis of the disparities that exist".
Despite the school’s diversity, most of those taking the college-level classes were predominantly white and from affluent backgrounds, the students found.
This is often the case since AP class placement is based on teacher recommendations which may make it harder for some people to take AP classes.
that a heightened awareness of whiteness would produce a sense of persecution, and encourage some to rally in defense of white rights.
"Some sense of persecution", colorblindness allows for people to avoid feeling whit guilt which doesn't allow people to recognize the reparations Black people and Native Americans have deserved for ages. This avoidance in confronting racism and privilege seems to be the fuel of racism.
By claiming that they do not see race, they also can avert their eyes from the ways in which well-meaning people engage in practices that reproduce neighborhood and school segregation, rely on “soft skills” in ways that disadvantage racial minorities in the job market, and hoard opportunities in ways that reserve access to better jobs for white peers.
So colorblindness does not really make any sense, since people who state that they are colorblind tend to racially segregate neighborhoods.
Concurrently, it is no longer socially acceptable in many quarters to identify oneself as racist. Instead, many Americans purport not to see color.
For fear of being judged as racist, colorblindness is essentially and lukewarm way to say that you are.
Indeed, these separate school settings not only kept Mexican Americans apart from their White peers, but they also allowed school officials across the Southwest to serve this population differently.6
So does this situation represent a de jure segregation? So is it a de jure segregation when it is the government steps in to actively segregate the students? This is a little messed up because intentions are never enough.
herefore, the segregation of Mexican American children was being accomplished on a massive scale by local school officials and school board members who often purported that segregation would help them assimilate and provide better opportunities to learn English.
I remember some students having ESL classes while others didn't. I think I had to take some ESL classes because my teacher thought my english wasn't good enough. Would this concept of "ESL" be a current day form of segregation in a "non-segregated" school?
Williams children might be less susceptible to picking up the prejudices of parents and peers, says Luigi Castelli, a social psychologist at the University of Padua in Italy
Parents prejudices most definitely have effects on their children.
social fear contributes to racial stereotyping but not to gender stereotypes, which may be linked to other cognitive processes such as social learning, the team reports online today in Current Biology.
Fear of people out of their social groups does create more room for racism to be embedded into the children's minds.
The control group demonstrated racial stereotyping by assigning negative qualities to dark-skinned individuals on an average of 83% of their responses, but the Williams children did so an average of only 64% of the time, the team found
Fear also serves as a catalyst for racism in children.
I have argued that whites who find themselves discriminated against based on racial proxies such as name
My dad changed his name to a very english one when he immigrated to the United States. The effect names have on people of color is larger than we think.
whites who begin to experience discrimination because of their intimate connection with someone of another race, or who regularly see their loved ones fall prey to racial discrimination,
This extra sense of racial discrimination is not just a feeling but it can be backed up by historical records where interracial marriage and love was illegal. I can't imagine how much stress this puts on current day multi-racial marriages.
Like race, racial identity can be fluid
This relates to how people who identify as latinx or hispanic were classified as white on paper.
Race is not biological. It is a social construct
Biology describes humans as one race. Meaning the term race used to differentiate people from their skin color must have come from another source.