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To answer your simple question, the people involved in establishing a "new land" are explorers, pioneers, and settlers. Once that land has firmly been established, the new arrivals are now immigrants. Think Ellis Island.
I had a couple of thoughts about this thread this afternoon.
First, in terms of reading original sources...yes, that's a good thing to do. However, those original sources are usually only 1 person's thoughts on the historical event occurring. Historians usually look for other sources to tell a more complete story. It would be like if the only history that mattered was President Trump's tweets; historians will go further and collect a wide range of input.
Second, back when I was a kid in the 1950s (and beyond until at least the late 1960s), the only stories that were told in textbooks were stories by people of the dominant culture. Therefore, we only learned about their perspective of, for example, slavery, the Indian Wars, the internment camps, etc. We didn't get a full picture. Nowadays we hear other voices that have much to contribute to creating that more complete record of American history.
Translation: in the old days, history was presented to us in a more palatable manner. We were told that white men were awesome and did all this amazing stuff while everyone else benefited from their awesomeness! There were a few bad apples but everyone from John Rolfe/John Smith to George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln were swell guys. No one else really contributed to America, but we'll spend five minutes talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and throw in some suffragette talk to provide a balanced viewpoint. Let's bask in our (white male) awesomeness. There couldn't possibly be more to the story.
The truth is that history is complicated and so it must now be taught with THE TRUTH in mind. The English-speaking whites that immigrated to the U.S. (after the Spanish excursions in the late 1400's and 1500's) weren't any different from other immigrant groups. They weren't rugged individualists that "tamed" the land. They were desperate people that were fortunate to arrive in North America when they did. The Spanish brought smallpox among other diseases and wiped out around 90% of the Native population in the Americas. Had the English encountered a fully peopled Native population, their "settling" (whatever the hell that means) would have gone much differently.
The nationalistic and xenophobic leanings of some Americans is best understood as an inverse relationship to one's understanding of U.S. history. So if you're praying for Toupee Fiasco to build a wall on the Mexican border, it's probably because you don't understand the irony and hypocrisy of that wish. As if it was perfectly OK for your ancestors to ignore the rights of others when taking Native land, but somehow it's not OK now for Mexicans (mainly Mestizos with significant native ancestry) to ignore your rules and do the same. A lot like how all those European countries colonized the world, and now the consequence of that is their former subjects returning home in large numbers to the mother country.
I agree with the second part. But as to the first I have to disagree. As my OP states the "history" has been altered and I do not think just its interpretation but instead its entire teaching. Some examples:
Civil War now covered more than Revolutionary War or War of 1812. This is a result of influx of liberal leaning teachers who prefer the pro-abolitionist side of the war (it was a side note at the time). We also hear more about Amerindians than before - this despite their rather modest accomplishments. Lastly, the idea that we are all immigrants. Jamestown was founded in 1607. I find it difficult to think of 400 years worth or European/American citizens as "immigrants."
Again, it just seems to me that the liberal dominated classrooms are so focused on PC and inclusion that they are altering our proud history.
TL;DR - The de-emphasis of slavery as a cause of the civil war was a post-war movement to reconcile Northern and Southern whites to one another in the re-united country. Slavery was absolutely the reason for the civil war.
Are you saying students are not supposed to THINK? How can you think without judging?
The same history teacher who asked the "Nuts" question gave us a lecture about China one day. And I sat there listening to that man thinking, "This wacko is looking forward to having a war with China!" And there were 3 Chinese boys in the class at the time.
I was already a cynic about "History" at the time and did not try to get better than a C in the class.
But the "History" you get in grade school and high school can be very different from the history you can find with a little effort. But in order to have these great stupid wars we need the dummies in each country properly brainwashed.
I'm wondering what I said that caused you to ask, "Then why teach history at all? Are you saying students are not supposed to THINK? How can you think without judging?"
The goal of teaching history is not to make students historians or experts on history, anymore than the goal of teaching science is not to turn students into scientists. You and I may have a strong interest in history, but many of the students I see don't understand why they are learning history when they will never use it. I've had several students tell me they are going to be mechanics and work on cars or diesel engines. A girl who was already working in a nursing home said, "I don't need to learn this stuff, I'm just going to be wiping butts for the rest of my life."
These students don't want to think about history and surely don't want to learn about alternative or science fiction versions of history. (Yes, I've read Harry Turtledove.) The goal with these students is to give them some exposure or a minimum level of cultural literacy. If a teacher can find topics that generate interest from students, they are doing a great job.
It sounds like you had some poor history teachers. None of mine were above average. The teacher you had who wanted to start a war with China should've kept his personal opinions to himself.
I've seen some boys typically at the middle school level who share many of your interests. They are typically carrying around a book on history or science fiction and want to debate me about something. I think it is great they are reading and try to encourage them.
I agree with the second part. But as to the first I have to disagree. As my OP states the "history" has been altered and I do not think just its interpretation but instead its entire teaching. Some examples:
Civil War now covered more than Revolutionary War or War of 1812. This is a result of influx of liberal leaning teachers who prefer the pro-abolitionist side of the war (it was a side note at the time). We also hear more about Amerindians than before - this despite their rather modest accomplishments. Lastly, the idea that we are all immigrants. Jamestown was founded in 1607. I find it difficult to think of 400 years worth or European/American citizens as "immigrants."
Fact we are all descendants of immigrants. Anyone that was not born here is an immigrant, which makes everyone but American Indians descendants of immigrants. And Jamestown was not the first immigrant settlement in this country. And English were not the first settlers in this country. And Europeans were not the only ones coming into this country. The fable that the Pilgrims were the first ones here and everything comes down from them is a lie, and any intelligent person knows this to be the truth.
Again, it just seems to me that the liberal dominated classrooms are so focused on PC and inclusion that they are altering our proud history.
Wrong. What they are doing, is correcting the lies that have been taught to us in the past. What has been taught in the past is that everything came down from White Europeans and that none of the other immigrants that built this country were important and did not exist. It was a big put down to other than White Europeans to teach that people other than white Europeans, were not important and are not part of the history that build this country. That is a lie, and it needs to be corrected. And you want to continue this lie, and are angry to find out you were not the only group that built this country.
And another thing, Columbus was not the first one to discover North America. It was discovered long before by Lief Erikson, from Norway, and he had the first settlement in North America.
There are so many historic lies that were taught in school, and so many people in this country that believe them and are angry that what they thought was the truth, is not the truth.
And there are other things that are coming out. That the Japanese were not the first race put in concentration camps.
The American Indians were rounded up and taken from their own lands and sent to Indian Reservations (concentration camps) and a large number are still held in those concentration camps to this day. They were removed from their traditional lands, and the lands stolen so they could be given to White Europeans. This country was stolen from the people that had actually owned the country as the White Europeans had guns and the Indians still had bows and arrows.
The South West was part of Mexico. Again the White Europeans captured them and when the railroads came available put them on trains and hauled them to the Mexican Border and put them out of this country.
In Humboldt County California there was quite a settlement of Chinese that had been brought into this country to build railroads. They owned their homes, and a number of businesses. The White Europeans there decided they did not want them there, rounded up all of them, stole their homes and businesses, put them on a train in locked cattle cars and sent them to San Francisco, and said now the county was under sun down law. Any Chinese that entered the county would be killed if they were in the county after Sun Down. And the terrible thing is, they meant it.
Those White Europeans that many on this thread think are the only important people in American History and claim only they are worth mentioning in history, must resent like H*** the fact that those White Europeans Came in and using their armies and guns, stole the country from the people that owned the country is being revealed. The American Indians and Mexicans. They rounded up the Indians and the ones they did not kill put them in concentration camps where a large number still live and are controlled by the Federal Government and forced to live in poverty. They did this so the White Europeans could steal their land.
They killed and rounded up Mexicans taking over their lands, and shipped them to the Mexican border and dumped them out to try to find some way to survive. They ran Chinese out of a county, and shipped them 300 miles in cattle cars and told them they were subject to Sundown Laws.
They rounded up a lot of long time American Citizens and sent them to concentration camp, stealing their homes and bushiness. They were Japanese Americans. But as the other two countries we were at war with, were White Europeans, they were not rounded up ad put in concentration camps.
Things like this are part of the U.S. White European History that Montydean and so many others on this thread are so proud of and do not want revealed. As a famous radio news caster used to say, now for the rest of he story. He would then reveal facts that completely differed from the first part of the story, when all the facts were laid out there. That is what is happening, which angers those that have a narrow minded opinion of U.S. History.
And I write this as a White European American, married to a White American and our families go back to early 1600s in this country.
And once again you don't have a clue why those particular subjects aren't in a typical high school History class despite being told time and time again the reasons.
Because most kids can't figure out that history is garbage while they are still in high school.
The people who think education is supposed to be indoctrination have a problem with people like me.
This is a conversation between a couple of characters in an SF book:
Quote:
Mord: "I'll tell you what. Information. You scratch my data bank and I'll scratch yours. But it has to be high-proof stuff, not garbage. Do you have anything that's not in the public files?"
Bat: "I have little else."
Mord: "Then that's what I want."
Bat: "But if it is provided to you, it must go no farther."
Mord: " 'Course not. What do you think I am? Knowledge is power, but not if you spread it around."
Cold as Ice by Charles Sheffield
Social power structures depend on the control of the distribution of knowledge. That is why the Internet should have already blown the culture out of the water. What kind of culture would result? It is not like it would cease to exist.
psik
Last edited by psikeyhackr; 02-13-2017 at 03:36 AM..
Because most kids can't figure out that history is garbage while they are still in high school.
The people who think education is supposed to be indoctrination have a problem with people like me.
psik
And still you refuse to listen, it has nothing to do with indoctrination and everything to do with a minimum level of cultural literacy.
I'm sorry school, all subjects, isn't built around what you like but you aren't the focus.
You have never listened, or maybe not understood, to explanations why certain things are taught. Basic high school courses, and college ones too, by their very nature are survey courses, a mile wide and an inch deep. To learn what you think you should have are in the purview of specialty classes, which many colleges do, in fact, offer.
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