Pledge to Teach the Truth: Despite New State Bills Against It | Zinn Education Project
We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events — regardless of the law.
Comments? Thoughts?
Should teachers lie to students? Should teachers who refuse to lie to students be fired? Do you support legislation that requires teachers to lie to students?
History is oftentimes in the eyes of the beholder. One can deliver a boring recitation of names, dates, and events in an objective, truthful, and factual manner. But it's the interpretations, extrapolations, and opinions where much of the controversy can begin.
One can be factual and honest about events, but to speculate on possible motivations or causes may be more a matter of opinion.
I can certainly understand the reaction against a lot of the BS which has been told about our history, such as the Manifest Destiny viewpoint and the idea that America was founded by a bunch of tough settlers and rugged individualists who braved rough seas, arrived on these shores, and carved a nation out of a savage wilderness. This view may also include the idea that it was all "God's will" and therefore we had His blessing to do what we did. (A good percentage of people still believe in this basic idea. God Bless America.)
Others might take a more Social Darwinist approach and proclaim that "only the strong shall survive." I would consider that an amoral and malicious perspective, although we still seem to embrace that basic principle to some degree in the predatory, dog-eat-dog, competitive society we have in this world - even to this day.
I'm not sure what history is being taught in the schools nowadays, although I've noticed over the course of my life that there's been a reaction against the so-called "traditional" Eurocentric ways of looking at our history.
A lot of it has been used and misused to feed the American propaganda machine which portrays our nation as the beacon of hope, the shining city on the hill, the defender of freedom and democracy all over the world.
Even today, as much of the nation expresses its collective regret over its past sins, transgressions, and atrocities, we also speak of moving beyond that, being more enlightened (or "woke" as some people call it) these days, and recognizing that our past ways of doing things were absolutely wrong and immoral. It sounds good on the surface, and there's nothing at all wrong with teachers pledging to tell the truth about our history.
Another thing that I've noticed is that there are a lot of people who seem woefully uninformed about history. I recall a conversation I had with a co-worker who was shocked to learn that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. She just couldn't believe it.
On another occasion, we had a new guy start at work, and he was from Ukraine. A co-worker had related to me how she didn't know where Ukraine was or ever heard of it before, so she called a bunch of her friends, and they never heard of it either. I just stood there with my mouth open, shaking my head in disbelief. I've also encountered a number of people who have never heard of Stalin before.
When I was taught history, I would later discover that a lot of what I learned early in school turned out to be BS or totally off the mark. I read a book called "Lies My Teacher Told Me," which I found quite fascinating. There's a large section which goes into the "First Thanksgiving," which I was taught early in elementary school. The view on Columbus has also significantly changed since the earlier positive treatment I remember.
I was also taught a decidedly pro-American view of the American Revolution and the War of 1812, and this has also remained somewhat of a "sacred cow" in how many people perceive this country and its early beginnings. Of course, we also learned about slavery and the Civil War, along with Westward Expansion - although some of my early school years I was living in upstate NY, and we moved to Arizona when I was in high school.
Moving from one region to another, there were noticeable differences in how the history classes were approached. History is sometimes viewed from an individual state's point of view.
We also Remember the Alamo, with John Wayne, an actor who portrayed an image of America which many people still embrace.
There was also Teddy Roosevelt's heroic charge up San Juan Hill, and we also go to Remember the Maine on that one. Uncle Teddy also gave us the Great White Fleet and liberated the people of Panama so we could have a canal. Then we came charging to the rescue and saved the world twice, in both WW1 and WW2. And we continued to protect the Free World from the Evil Empire. This is what many Americans have been taught and how they perceive the world.
I think some people might sincerely want to believe that they come from a brave, noble, and proud nation - full of goodness and righteousness rooted in the belief that they're carrying out God's will. We believe in liberty and democracy and freedom for the individual, as many Americans proudly boast. They view certain perceptions of history as too negative, saying that it's "blame America first" or "hate America first." They think that if people don't subscribe to certain BS perceptions of history, it means that they hate America, but I don't think that's really true.
If we tell the truth about America, if it's the whole truth, then we can see many positives in our history as well.
The question is not really about focusing on the past and all the grievous wrongs which have been committed in the formation and building of America.
The question is about the here and now and what direction we want to take in the future. We can't really "undo" America at this point, even despite our morally questionable and shaky foundation.
We can still exist as a sovereign, independent, geopolitical entity, but we don't necessarily need to get stuck on names or flags so much. We don't need to get stuck on "tradition." We don't need to cling to old outdated and outmoded ideals which don't seem to have much relevance in the modern world.
We can still have a prosperous, peaceful, just, orderly, and law-abiding nation. We're all stuck with each other here, for better or worse. So either we make the best of it and pull together - or we can fight each other and blow the place to Kingdom Come. The rest is just politics and academic commentary. The reality is a lot of heavily armed people out there preparing for Armageddon or some zombie apocalypse - or something like that. They think that they're the good guys and that these liberal teachers and progressives in academia are the evil ones - the commies out to destroy America and our way of life.
