Thank you for showing the patience with one whom you do not always agree.
Those are excellent points. I will confess that you have done more due diligence on this subject than I have. Over the last few years, I have noticed increasing complaints about the bias of history texts. Conservatives have complained that many subjects have received complete re-writes. It sounds like IYO they were needed.
For several years, I had the pleasure of working with college age people. We sometimes had time to engage in conversations unrelated to business. One thing that struck me was how little these people knew about history. Perhaps the explanation is that US history is a casualty of the attempt to cover China, Japan, South America, Islam etc. In a time-limited framework, only a few subjects can be covered well. If we do not teach our children the history of our country, we risk losing it. Perhaps the reason that history taught was Euro-centric could be related to the fact that many of our ancestors came from Europe.
My school taught about USSR, China, Japan, India, and several other countries. The education on Israel was Euro-centric. We were not force fed much on the history of Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Deism, Islam, or any other religion. My textbooks did cover some about Korea. I was very fortunate to have a brilliant and dedicated American History teacher. I learned in much greater depth than most.
The history of Europe has survived more completely than the history of other parts of the world. If the library at Alexandria had survived, we would know so much more about ancient history than we do. Conquerors in the Middle East have destroyed or subsumed much of the history of the conquered. What survived has often been unearthed by people more driven by profit than knowledge. When an archeological site is exploited without recording the details most of what can be learned is lost.
I did not learn that Indians were the aggressors, but that they had been pushed aside in the relentless push to settle and develop the wilderness. For instance, I know that Oklahoma was a reservation, which was later taken from the Indians and settled, and that Sooners were people who crossed the border early to stake homestead claims illegally. Notice I said learned, and not taught; I have always been a voracious reader.
History is doubling every year. Capacity to teach it and to learn it is not. If education has breadth over depth, then you end up with students who are all surface and no knowledge.
The bottom line is that history is controlled by those who write it. A population that is wiped out whether by small pox, sword or other cause has no voice in history. |
