Politics in the Schoolroom

When this essay first started out I was appalled that a fourth grade teacher would tell her students that Columbus was a greedy and a murderer. I don't believe that children should hear about these true and dirty facts, but I feel that as they reach high school they are more mature and can handle what Columbus actually did. What child wants to hear that their hero has been a lie? Personally, i would feel crushed and perhaps speak out against this teacher. Who wants their child to learn words like "genocide, holocaust, or annihilate?" Yes, in a way it will give children the idea that, nobody is perfect and perhaps give them the insight of keeping an open mind. But in our strong Christian society what parent would allow this? This situation can also lead to a bad impact, a naiive child will learn about the dark side of Columbus and perhaps may think, "Columbus was able to gain all this power by killing innocent people but still is regarded as a hero, I want to be just like him!" We have enough corruption in the media to influence young minds, now history is going to strike the young. Why do Americans criticize the Western culture? I think that we, Americans only do this to describe our own past. Well more of the White European side, have we forgotten that America consists of multiple cultures? In U.S. History books America was known as the "Giant Melting Pot" when all the immigrants came to America and ditched their own culture to blend in. There are hardly any long chapters in U.S. History about the Japanese Americans, I always felt so disappointed when we got to that chapter. I felt that a part of my heritage was missing. Truly, America doesn't stand for a "tossed salad" but a giant melting pot where the European heritage masks out everything. Learning one after another, of a corrupt White European man gets to be really boring. But when I read about an African or Aztec corrupt man, my attention increases by tenfold. Cheney writes that the standards for teaching about the Aztecs includes, architecture, labor systems, and agriculture. But ignores the fact that the Aztecs practiced human sacrifices. Why are American authors doing this? Are we trying to be more politically correct? Why can't we accept that other cultures have their own faults too? If we were to include the faults of other cultures it would bring us to the fact that yes, other people like us make mistakes.

On page 270, Cheney makes a great point; she writes that a fifth and sixth grade standard is to read a book about a Japanese girl who died of radiation due to the atomic bombs which the U.S. created. But, the standard fails to include the events that lead up to this sad story. Just like Columbus, what are we teaching our youth? What are they thinking about this? Cheney, believes that they will come to realize that their own country is horrible for harming the innocent. Where is the American pride? Nowhere to be found. Surprisingly Cheney supports a more grim and true version of history than a more happier one. But why should we allow the dark and dirty version of history when most high schools will not allow rated R films? I see no difference in either, most rated R films present the facts better than a textbook would.

Cheney congratulates the accomplishments that women have achieved in this era. More women today have ditched the housewife status and evolved into educated powerful women. Recent studies from the AAUW show that girls are more prone to think about colleges than boys. And that more girls enroll into college. There is a larger female population even here on campus! At one time most textbooks failed to include some important women of our time, the AAUW found this discrimitory. Now the AAUW reports that textbooks are starting to integrate female history into textbooks. HIStory no more, now is the time for HERstory!

But once again, Cheney cites that authors fail to include the whole story. Researchers at Smith College discovered that recent textbooks did include women but were more in favor of them. The textbooks failed to acknowledge some of the faults that historical women dealt with.