Should teachers teach the truth even when it makes us look bad? After all, history is written by the victors?

Answer 1

They should teach us ESPECIALLY when it makes us look bad. How are we supposed to learn from the past if we don't study it?

I mean, come on. Just because the Japanese don't teach their children much about WW2 doesn't mean it didn't happen, does it? Of course no, so we need to study the things that makes America look bad, such as Abu Gharib, Guantanamo Bay (hey, I'm ALL FOR holding those prisoners in prison ON AMERICAN SOIL), for putting our soldiers over there without enough support!, etc. There are thousands of things we can apologize for, but you know what?

America is, in my opinion the greatest country this world has ever seen! And for our entire history to now, we have acted as honorably as possible in this world. We can of course, do better.

Answer 2

how can the truth be making anyone look bad, providing the 'truth' is backed by facts. also, how old are your students? some kids are not ready for the brutal truth but should be given the quickie watered down version of the facts. i taught high school for years & also dabbled in teaching k-8 when i worked as a computer tech (for the young set). i noticed, just like my own children, that concrete thought is the formative stage ( 4-10) and heavy-duty info is lost on them for the time being. slowly introducing the same kids to more info takes a while and by the time they reach the abstract stage (11/12-18) , then you can begin to do the "say, did i ever telll the the other side of columbus' travels & the people he met....?" never tell a lie. back up the truth with facts. know your audience & target group and introduce the info slowly. the best approach? form it into a question where you excite & challenge their brains. i usually try, "hey! did i ever tell you the real story behind columbus day? ah! you wouldn't want to hear this ...or would you?" when doing this approach, the info becomes the rag & you're the wag & it's presented as gossip, gossip, gossip! it works!

Answer 3

No argument here, but it just isn't going to happen any time soon. I hear more evidence every day that some authors are simply making up history. Trying to sugar coat it or something like that. I can't think of any examples right now... darn it! Oh yes... here is an old example. One of the oldest history books ever written. The Bible. It is well known that in the beginning of the christian religion, a group of 70 "religious scholars" got together to translate the old testament (from hebrew to latin) and decide what to include into what we know now as the new testament. Evidence has recently been discovered to suggest that there was bias in deciding what to include in the new testament. Not that the Bible story is "not the truth", maybe just not the whole truth!

Another more recent example is the facts behind the civil war. We are taught the Civil War was about slavery. That can be called the truth, but it is not the whole truth as I understand it from several sources. Slavery was more of a supporting reason than the main reason. I have been told the main reason was economics. The southern states produced cotton, cotton needed for the textile mills in the north. Northern factories of course were searching for the lowest prices, southern plantations used the cheapest labor in order to be competitive and sell their product. It was more a war of economics than slavery. Don't get me wrong, slavery was very wrong and needed something to abolish it. But the picture that is painted by history is that southern plantation owners just wanted to have slaves and exploit them. Little if anything is mentioned about the northern people who also owned slaves. And as far as the racial slant on slavery goes, little if any is said about the Black tribal leaders in Africa who captured the neighboring tribesmen and sold them to the northern slave traders here.

As far as history being written by the victors, here is an interesting story that affected me personally. I have heard that for many years after the civil war, books were not allowed to be published in southern states. How long this trend continued I don't know, but I do remember back in the 60's when first learning to read, the primary reading books, there was these stories that always seemed to include "robins returning in spring". As I am sitting there in my desk, in the middle of January, here in Texas, bored to tears and looking out the window for something exciting, I see... guess what??? ROBINS I am confused, the book says robins return in spring, it is not spring and robins are already here. My conclusion... at the early age of 7 years... you can't believe everything you read!!! You see, being written by northern authors and published there, it is true for them that robins do return in spring, after migrating south for the winter.

So yes, I agree history should be an accurate account of the happening in the world, regardless if the truth hurts!!

Answer 4

I agree with Adam's first line!

This book might be a good read for you:
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen

Answer 5

I think that's only fair and honest that especially history is taught without any falsifications.