American textbooks are whitewashed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Texas (HS class of ‘89) and I assure you, the textbooks covered the Civil War as a MAJOR thing that was definitely about slavery. We covered slavery, Dred Scott, the Underground Railroad, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, lynchings, the Jim Crow laws, Plessy v Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., Frederich Douglas, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, etc.

We also covered broken treaties with Native Americans, the Trail of Tears, massacres, widespread buffalo slaughter, reservations and reservation schools, Windtalkers, etc.

We covered Japanese internment camps and Chinese exclusion laws.

We covered Caesar Chavez and migrant workers.

The textbooks weren’t perfect. There is always room for improvement in anything. My teachers (like good teachers everywhere) occasionally supplemented with additional materials to provide additional information and to make it more interesting, but the textbooks provided a strong foundation and framework to expand upon. On occasion, the textbooks might have a typo or factual error, but that was after they had been edited and reviewed by teams of subject matter experts and consequently reviewed and selected by the state. I had far more confidence in them than I do with a haphazard curriculum put together by a local school district.

NP. I grew up in NC and they did not teach this stuff you mention. The Civil War was definitely taught as op described it. I was taught it had little to do with slavery and more to do with states rights and Northerners attacking Southerners on their land. We were taught that very few people were slave owners. We never learned much about Native Americans. Even worse we lived close to a fairly sizable population of Native Americans and never learned about them.

NP. I also grew up in Texas, graduated high school in '97, and learned all of that in school. Guess y'all should have opted for the Texas textbooks.

Ftr, I haven't seen current Texas textbooks, maybe they have changed for the worse. I also haven't seen current Virginia textbooks, where I live now, since FCPS doesn't seem to use them. There are digital textbooks but teachers don't use them.

[Anonymous]

You can move to another country if you don’t like public education in the us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What textbooks? MCPS doesn't use them except in a few classes.

If you read carefully I was talking about inaccurate history books used in states like Virginia through the 1980s and some in early 2000s. Going back to the type of censored textbooks that were previously used would create a bigger divide between the states who will agree to leave out significant parts of American history and the minority of states who will continue to accurately teach American history.

I don’t want my child learning history online. While the teacher is talking about the Cold War, half the class will be playing Minecraft. Give me textbooks. I send my child to school to learn, not to get more time on a screen.

And what makes you think learning history online in a district that censors the past is going to be any different than using a textbook? The problem isn’t the source; it’s the person selecting the content.

It probably won’t help the states that go along with eliminating parts of the US bleakest times in history. But textbooks are almost always poorly written, unreadable. That’s when the kids take out their hidden phones to play games.

There are plenty of books written by scholars with great reputations that can supplement online work. There are documentaries that show exactly what was happening during historical times. Eyes on the Prize documents the Civil Rights Movement in all its ugliness and hate.

Textbooks will not bring about better educated kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can move to another country if you don’t like public education in the us.

Or you can work to fix it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Texas (HS class of ‘89) and I assure you, the textbooks covered the Civil War as a MAJOR thing that was definitely about slavery. We covered slavery, Dred Scott, the Underground Railroad, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, lynchings, the Jim Crow laws, Plessy v Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., Frederich Douglas, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, etc.

We also covered broken treaties with Native Americans, the Trail of Tears, massacres, widespread buffalo slaughter, reservations and reservation schools, Windtalkers, etc.

We covered Japanese internment camps and Chinese exclusion laws.

We covered Caesar Chavez and migrant workers.

The textbooks weren’t perfect. There is always room for improvement in anything. My teachers (like good teachers everywhere) occasionally supplemented with additional materials to provide additional information and to make it more interesting, but the textbooks provided a strong foundation and framework to expand upon. On occasion, the textbooks might have a typo or factual error, but that was after they had been edited and reviewed by teams of subject matter experts and consequently reviewed and selected by the state. I had far more confidence in them than I do with a haphazard curriculum put together by a local school district.

You might think your textbooks weren’t whitewashed because that’s all you know.

Here’s one history teachers view …
https://bdjanu.medium.com/race-and-the-whitewashing-of-history-in-our-textbooks-501a15ddb181


And it’s not just history. In 2023 …
The Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education this week rejected most of the proposed textbooks that include climate science for eighth grade students. Five of 12 were approved.

The 15-member board largely rejected the books either because they included policy solutions for climate change or because they were produced by a company that has an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policy.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/17/texas-climate-textbooks-education-SBOE/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What textbooks? MCPS doesn't use them except in a few classes.

If you read carefully I was talking about inaccurate history books used in states like Virginia through the 1980s and some in early 2000s. Going back to the type of censored textbooks that were previously used would create a bigger divide between the states who will agree to leave out significant parts of American history and the minority of states who will continue to accurately teach American history.

I don’t want my child learning history online. While the teacher is talking about the Cold War, half the class will be playing Minecraft. Give me textbooks. I send my child to school to learn, not to get more time on a screen.

And what makes you think learning history online in a district that censors the past is going to be any different than using a textbook? The problem isn’t the source; it’s the person selecting the content.

It probably won’t help the states that go along with eliminating parts of the US bleakest times in history. But textbooks are almost always poorly written, unreadable. That’s when the kids take out their hidden phones to play games.

There are plenty of books written by scholars with great reputations that can supplement online work. There are documentaries that show exactly what was happening during historical times. Eyes on the Prize documents the Civil Rights Movement in all its ugliness and hate.

Textbooks will not bring about better educated kids.

Textbooks used to produce educated kids.

Online textbooks are terrible for several reasons, mostly related to the difference in format. Using "original sources" sounds nice but is either a tremendous burden on the teacher to curate their own curriculum or just doesn't actually happen. Usually the latter.

[Anonymous]

https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai2/politics/text5/dogwoodtree.pdf

https://wordinblack.com/2022/01/the-horrors-of-lynching-photographs-and-postcards/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai2/politics/text5/dogwoodtree.pdf

https://wordinblack.com/2022/01/the-horrors-of-lynching-photographs-and-postcards/

Were these pictures and explanations in Texas schools textbooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What textbooks? MCPS doesn't use them except in a few classes.

If you read carefully I was talking about inaccurate history books used in states like Virginia through the 1980s and some in early 2000s. Going back to the type of censored textbooks that were previously used would create a bigger divide between the states who will agree to leave out significant parts of American history and the minority of states who will continue to accurately teach American history.

I don’t want my child learning history online. While the teacher is talking about the Cold War, half the class will be playing Minecraft. Give me textbooks. I send my child to school to learn, not to get more time on a screen.

And what makes you think learning history online in a district that censors the past is going to be any different than using a textbook? The problem isn’t the source; it’s the person selecting the content.

This. Plus it is so much harder for parents to know what kids are learning and help them study for quizzes/tests with material online. It was so much simpler when teachers said there’d be a
Test over chapter 3, and and/or parents could open the book to chapter 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What textbooks? MCPS doesn't use them except in a few classes.

If you read carefully I was talking about inaccurate history books used in states like Virginia through the 1980s and some in early 2000s. Going back to the type of censored textbooks that were previously used would create a bigger divide between the states who will agree to leave out significant parts of American history and the minority of states who will continue to accurately teach American history.

I don’t want my child learning history online. While the teacher is talking about the Cold War, half the class will be playing Minecraft. Give me textbooks. I send my child to school to learn, not to get more time on a screen.

And what makes you think learning history online in a district that censors the past is going to be any different than using a textbook? The problem isn’t the source; it’s the person selecting the content.

This. Plus it is so much harder for parents to know what kids are learning and help them study for quizzes/tests with material online. It was so much simpler when teachers said there’d be a
Test over chapter 3, and and/or parents could open the book to chapter 3

Everything is recorded on their Chromebook! It’s so easy. The screen each teacher / subject in a box. Below the box is what is due and when. Open the box and all the information on what was complete and what needs to be done.

Teachers also send emails on projects and other activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What textbooks? MCPS doesn't use them except in a few classes.

If you read carefully I was talking about inaccurate history books used in states like Virginia through the 1980s and some in early 2000s. Going back to the type of censored textbooks that were previously used would create a bigger divide between the states who will agree to leave out significant parts of American history and the minority of states who will continue to accurately teach American history.

I don’t want my child learning history online. While the teacher is talking about the Cold War, half the class will be playing Minecraft. Give me textbooks. I send my child to school to learn, not to get more time on a screen.

And what makes you think learning history online in a district that censors the past is going to be any different than using a textbook? The problem isn’t the source; it’s the person selecting the content.

This. Plus it is so much harder for parents to know what kids are learning and help them study for quizzes/tests with material online. It was so much simpler when teachers said there’d be a
Test over chapter 3, and and/or parents could open the book to chapter 3

Everything is recorded on their Chromebook! It’s so easy. The screen each teacher / subject in a box. Below the box is what is due and when. Open the box and all the information on what was complete and what needs to be done.

Teachers also send emails on projects and other activities.

What technological utopian school does your DC go to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Texas (HS class of ‘89) and I assure you, the textbooks covered the Civil War as a MAJOR thing that was definitely about slavery. We covered slavery, Dred Scott, the Underground Railroad, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, lynchings, the Jim Crow laws, Plessy v Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., Frederich Douglas, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, etc.

We also covered broken treaties with Native Americans, the Trail of Tears, massacres, widespread buffalo slaughter, reservations and reservation schools, Windtalkers, etc.

We covered Japanese internment camps and Chinese exclusion laws.

We covered Caesar Chavez and migrant workers.

The textbooks weren’t perfect. There is always room for improvement in anything. My teachers (like good teachers everywhere) occasionally supplemented with additional materials to provide additional information and to make it more interesting, but the textbooks provided a strong foundation and framework to expand upon. On occasion, the textbooks might have a typo or factual error, but that was after they had been edited and reviewed by teams of subject matter experts and consequently reviewed and selected by the state. I had far more confidence in them than I do with a haphazard curriculum put together by a local school district.

NP. I grew up in NC and they did not teach this stuff you mention. The Civil War was definitely taught as op described it. I was taught it had little to do with slavery and more to do with states rights and Northerners attacking Southerners on their land. We were taught that very few people were slave owners. We never learned much about Native Americans. Even worse we lived close to a fairly sizable population of Native Americans and never learned about them.

Wow, and did you all generally believe what you were taught or did you know they were glossing over just about everything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Texas (HS class of ‘89) and I assure you, the textbooks covered the Civil War as a MAJOR thing that was definitely about slavery. We covered slavery, Dred Scott, the Underground Railroad, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, lynchings, the Jim Crow laws, Plessy v Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., Frederich Douglas, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, etc.

We also covered broken treaties with Native Americans, the Trail of Tears, massacres, widespread buffalo slaughter, reservations and reservation schools, Windtalkers, etc.

We covered Japanese internment camps and Chinese exclusion laws.

We covered Caesar Chavez and migrant workers.

The textbooks weren’t perfect. There is always room for improvement in anything. My teachers (like good teachers everywhere) occasionally supplemented with additional materials to provide additional information and to make it more interesting, but the textbooks provided a strong foundation and framework to expand upon. On occasion, the textbooks might have a typo or factual error, but that was after they had been edited and reviewed by teams of subject matter experts and consequently reviewed and selected by the state. I had far more confidence in them than I do with a haphazard curriculum put together by a local school district.

NP. I grew up in NC and they did not teach this stuff you mention. The Civil War was definitely taught as op described it. I was taught it had little to do with slavery and more to do with states rights and Northerners attacking Southerners on their land. We were taught that very few people were slave owners. We never learned much about Native Americans. Even worse we lived close to a fairly sizable population of Native Americans and never learned about them.

Wow, and did you all generally believe what you were taught or did you know they were glossing over just about everything?

I’m not the PP but the only way you find out what was missing in your education is to keep educating yourself as an adult.

I found out in college that my school system left out a lot about the Cold War. We learned all about Russia wanting to take over the world with communism. The Soviet Union wasn’t enough.

My high school didn’t talk about “both side”. The US was so obsessed with the evils of communism that our CIA was behind many coups in South America and propping up dictators which they saw as preferable to socialist leaders. The most well known was Chile. During the early 70s Chile had a democratically elected leader, Allende, who was liberal/socialist. The CIA bankrolled the coup d’Etat and installed Pinochet as dictator.

Discuss the Cold War with your teens and see how well your teachers are doing.

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile, FCPS was forced to skip a section on John Henry this year because they were scared 3rd graders would ask too many questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS got rid of its textbooks a while ago.

well that's quite the commitment to racial equity.