Re: [DL] Civil War Banned from Knox County Schools

[Brett Dixon <balance@tubas.net>]

On Tuesday, January 7, 2003, at 08:26  PM, Joey Fanning wrote:

> It turns out that the year after I get out of my county's school 
> system, they bought new U.S. history textbooks.  They had no 
> information on the Civil War.  In addition, I've learned from my 
> friends still attending that in place of civil war history, they're 
> teaching 9/11 stuff.  Correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't everyone 
> over the age of 7 know what happened?  My sister didn't even know what 
> colors the different sides wore!  Now I must teach civil war history 
> to all my friends.  Has anyone else been experiencing this?  I'm sure 
> that the civil war is something that we're supposed to forget about in 
> this time of abnormally high patriotism, but isn't one of the most 
> important reasons to learn history to learn from the mistakes of the 
> past?  The worst part is, I live in the south.

History's a weird subject. I think there has, historically, been two 
very distinct trains of though in it's teaching.One is the dry, 
stereotypical focus on dates, names, and events. The other is the more 
'modern' viewpoint,t hat teaches History as a series of demonstrative 
examples... Taking the concept of "those who don't remember history are 
doomed to repeat it" [1] to an extreme. I had a lot of the second style 
in my education, and I admit that much of my grasp of history is pretty 
bad. There's a huge number of special topics that have been forced into 
most history programs nowadays that really mess with things. I had a 
teacher in high school that refused to use the standard Black Histoty 
Month material... She felt, and looking back i agree, that it lessens 
the impact of the various peoples and events of the planned lesson if 
they are singled out and compressed... it makes them feel like an 
add-on instead of an important part of a whole story. So we just kept 
rolling, and actually approached the 20th century, a rarity for every 
history class I ever took...

Anyway, the oe thing I think many of the 'good' teachers overlook is 
that there's a lot of 'secondary' sources for learning history that may 
interest students better...  Movies and such, if looked at properly, 
can provide the motivation to look at historical events deeper to 
determine the true (or at least, more accurate) version of events 
without the exaggeration and editing that is the job of Hollywood.

September 11th stuff is, at present, too fresh for History I think... A 
social studies program, yes... Even if it overlaps a bit and tries to 
cover the background of the Middle East, even though this could 
probably serve as the basis for a multi-semester college program. It's 
something any current students have lived through and a social studies 
environment may also be a more tactful way to deal with it... After 
informally checking with friends and coworkers last year, an 
overwhelming majority of people I know have at least a 
friend-of-friend-of-friend level contact who  had some part in 
September 11th, be it as a displaced New Yorker, DC driver, office 
worker, rescue and police, up to actual victims and their families. 
This is a subject that should be talked about, but it's got to be done 
right.

Oh, wow... That's a huge reservation list for my soapbox. i should 
start charging for tickets. oh well, here it is for the next rant...

[1] Or at least mangle the quote.