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I really don't think it matters what context. She is a child in the 5th grade. First she should be taught some basic facts and to be proud of her country. Later, in high school they can start bringing in controversial issues. Her image of herself is still forming.
Why should blind nationalism be taught in lieu of the truth?
I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I thought you need to learn all sides of history to be a critical thinker. Our kids are only taught one thing and that is how bad America is.
You need to provide proof of your statement, otherwise you will be labeled as anti-American because you're not only exaggerating the situation to fit your views, you're also dividing the country along vaguely-defined ideological lines.
It's not so cut and dry.
However, I'm a firm believer that there is mind control in practically every part of our daily lives. I think the the pledge of allegiance is mind control. I'm all for our children being taught what's good about our country (and how the hell do we determine that? I wonder) as well as where there is room for improvement. Our greatest leaders were indeed fallible.
In any case, what would teaching how great we are accomplish when it's pretty obvious we're failing on so many levels? I think it sets us up for continued failure. If we can't tell our kids what's wrong, how can we expect them to fix it?
Why should blind nationalism be taught in lieu of the truth?
Dont'cha know? We just want them to draw turkeys by tracing around their splayed out fingers. We don't need to be talking about presidents, unless it's stories about cherry trees. And Dolly Madison makes snack food.
My Puritan family came over here from Holland, wearing tall hats and bonnets, brandishing muskets, and and carrying empty cornucopias, to be filled at a later date, didn't yours?
Oh I forgot - lots 'o buckles. They put buckles on everything.
Dont'cha know? We just want them to draw turkeys by tracing around their splayed out fingers. We don't need to be talking about presidents, unless it's stories about cherry trees. And Dolly Madison makes snack food.
My Puritan family came over here from Holland, wearing tall hats and bonnets, brandishing muskets, and and carrying empty cornucopias, to be filled at a later date, didn't yours?
Oh I forgot - lots 'o buckles. They put buckles on everything.
5th graders should be learning the history of the US, the fundamentals, not some sloppy one-sided, liberaesque view of how "horrible it all was" without showing/teaching how and why THAT WAS THE NORM going on in the day. And they should also research and teach who sold who to whom and who was already partaking in "slavery" before those kids back-pack across EU so happily and care-free.
5th graders should be learning the history of the US, the fundamentals, not some sloppy one-sided, liberaesque view of how "horrible it all was" without showing/teaching how and why THAT WAS THE NORM going on in the day. And they should also research and teach who sold who to whom and who was already partaking in "slavery" before those kids back-pack across EU so happily and care-free.
All you know is a single poem that was taught the student and here you are pointing out some stuff about how slavery was the norm or how other nations participated in the slave trade. How do you get from there to a "one-sided liberaesque view of how 'horrible it all was'" without some serious twisting of the information presented?
The whole point is that Jefferson spoke out against slavery while simultaneously participating in the slave system. The United States was absolutely built on slave labor and pointing out our founders' vexed relationship with the practice is absolutely part of the "fundamentals" as far as I'm concerned. We aren't some faultless nation full of paragons of freedom and we aren't a country of maniacal, world-conquering supervillains, either. However, when it comes to our historical treatment of non-whites, America has done lots of messed up stuff, and that is absolutely undeniable.
Do you get upset when the Trail of Tears (let's rename it the Native Relocation Festival) and the Indian Removal Act are taught as part of a unit on Native American History, or when the Japanese internment camps are brought in up in the discussion of WWII? Because we sure love to talk about our conquest of the American West, the logic of Manifest Destiny, and our rescuing the world from Nazi evil during WWII a lot, not to mention the typically heroic representation of these events in our mass media.
If our desire to instill pride in American youngsters ever comes at the expense of historical accuracy, I'll start getting really worried about the strain of anti-intellectualism in our country.
All you know is a single poem that was taught the student and here you are pointing out some stuff about how slavery was the norm or how other nations participated in the slave trade. How do you get from there to a "one-sided liberaesque view of how 'horrible it all was'" without some serious twisting of the information presented?
The whole point is that Jefferson spoke out against slavery while simultaneously participating in the slave system. The United States was absolutely built on slave labor and pointing out our founders' vexed relationship with the practice is absolutely part of the "fundamentals" as far as I'm concerned. We aren't some faultless nation full of paragons of freedom and we aren't a country of maniacal, world-conquering supervillains, either. However, when it comes to our historical treatment of non-whites, America has done lots of messed up stuff, and that is absolutely undeniable.
Do you get upset when the Trail of Tears (let's rename it the Native Relocation Festival) and the Indian Removal Act are taught as part of a unit on Native American History, or when the Japanese internment camps are brought in up in the discussion of WWII? Because we sure love to talk about our conquest of the American West, the logic of Manifest Destiny, and our rescuing the world from Nazi evil during WWII a lot, not to mention the typically heroic representation of these events in our mass media.
If our desire to instill pride in American youngsters ever comes at the expense of historical accuracy, I'll start getting really worried about the strain of anti-intellectualism in our country.
There is no anti intellectualism in our country - It's just that the "self-appointed" intellectuals have difficulty "tolerating" criticism.
If educators want to talk about slavery, let them talk about the roots of international slavery - You know, how it started with Africans selling other Africans.
And let them talk about it in it's proper "historical" perspective. 400 years ago the world was developing - People throughout the world were still treating all others unlike themselves as not being equal to them. It still exists today in Asia, Africa, South America and even in parts of the European/Asian continent. This is not a white mans creation. So stop blaming them.
As far as this country being built by slaves - Perhaps, but the largest extent was from white slave laborers and debtors. (Look at the full facts).
As for the Native Americans - Remember, it was they that taught the settlers that you torture and mutilate your captives - This was not the ways the Europeans brought here. They did it in retaliation for what the Native Americans did to them, and they had been doing to their tribal enemies (for hundreds of years before any white man got here). - Apparently it was the "language" they understood - wasn't it?
Japanese in interment camps - Were they tortured, mutilated and beheaded?...Not to my knowledge...But, that is how the Japanese treated the Americans and everyone else that they captured. The Japanese here were more protected by the internment than anything - What would the families of the soldiers do to them (knowing what the Japanese were doing to our soldiers). Look at it in it's real perspective.
What all this nonsense comes down to is pure envy and jealousy of the white population running amok, especially by the self-hating white enablers that call themselves the "Intellectual" - And that is a real bias and racism, isn't it?
How Public Schools Teach Kids to Be Ashamed of America
Quote:
Originally Posted by GottaBMe
My 5th grader came home from school with this poem given to her by her teacher. The poem is representative of what she is being taught about our country and its leaders:
How to be Thomas Jefferson
by Barry Lane
Write like an angel.
Live in your mind.
Have your heart broken many times.
Declare all men equal,
and never release your 200 slaves.
Buy lots of real estate from Frenchmen
without looking at it.
Live beyond your means
and owe lots of money.
Never finish the house
that years later will appear
on the back side of a nickel.
I don't find it funny and I don't think its appropriate to be given to a fifth grader. It is only one example of many in which I have seen the school make a mockery of our country, its leaders, history, flag, etc. Is it any wonder that we have a growing nation of citizens who seem to lack a sense of pride in our country and are so overridden with a sense of guilt that they cave in to every piece of politically correct coersion thrown at them? Sad. I find it sad. Is this how you want your children taught? Is this how you want your tax dollars used?
Relax, everybody...
This is the kind of demented "logic" that we hear and see far too much of.
Some micro-event in a single teacher's classroom gets blown out of proportion and the next thing we know, there's a deluge of "public education has gone to hell in a handbasket" posts.
Please...
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How Public Schools Teach Kids to Be Ashamed of America
