Comments on The Sapient Sutler: Lies and the Lying Teachers Who Teach Them

If you say so, anonymous. Can't say I agree that ...

2007-08-04T23:51:23.738-05:00

If you say so, anonymous. Can't say I agree that revolution was the Texicans' business.

"The most blatant example here in Texas is our bal...

2007-08-04T17:40:05.515-05:00

"The most blatant example here in Texas is our ballyhooed 'independence' that we "won" from Mexico. The Texas-Mexican war is passed off as some sort of counterpart to the American revolution in miniature, when the stark truth is that Mexico allowed Americans to settle on their land and in no way deserved to get that land outright stolen from them by the settlers. Looking at it utterly objectively, the Texicans really were the bad guys in that scenario."

I believe the trashing of the Mexican Constitution and Santa Ana setting himself up as dictator had something to do with the Texican revolution....and there were other Mexicans who rebelled against Santa Ana for the same reason.

Texicans? Bad guys?

No.

The worst part of the mythical history that public...

2007-08-01T10:58:21.450-05:00

The worst part of the mythical history that public school teachers are sometimes expected to teach is that it makes the students both bored and suspicious. The little moral set pieces that roll out in the traditional narrative ("Then the brave Texans were overwhelmed by the numerous smelly Mexicans") are so predictable as to be uninteresting. And they are so duplicitous that any fairly bright kid eventually figures out that she is being lied to. Conclusion: History is a boring set of lies.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Thank you for your input, spam-like webpages.

2007-07-23T16:45:48.357-05:00

Thank you for your input, spam-like webpages.

This is a great discussion. Of course, I agree wit...

2007-07-18T21:06:32.530-05:00

This is a great discussion. Of course, I agree with you. We keep on telling our children to tell the truth. Now that it's our turn to tell them, it would be unfair on their part if we don't tell them the truth.

By the way, I got your link from EHT.

That's the spirit. Students will never know about ...

2007-07-17T20:00:56.964-05:00

That's the spirit. Students will never know about the secret if teachers would keep on telling them lies. They have the right to know the truth about it.

I also agree. Our children deserves to know the tr...

2007-07-17T02:28:26.214-05:00

I also agree. Our children deserves to know the truth. If we don't share this to them, who would? They'll probably understand why it has to be that way.

I say way to go Chance. Way to go!I cannot agree ...

2007-07-12T21:23:07.196-05:00

I say way to go Chance. Way to go!
I cannot agree with you more. I don't think you were reading my site when I wrote about George Washington many moons ago. The post is called George, We Hardly Knew Ye.....and was prompted by a conversation I heard from two lower grade elementary teachers who were teaching myths as truths to their kids.

I think you are doing students a disservice if you don't show them both sides of a coin...Columbus was not "saving" the savages when he arrived in Carribean...the Europeans were not civilizing the savage...the Europeans did not have a right to begin colonization since the land was already settled...

However, there is a fine line you ride when you do this. I want my students to love their country warts and all but by showing them the warts we run the chance of making them cynical and untrusting. It's sort of like growing up and coming to the realization that your parent makes mistakes. You have to come to grips with that, accept it, yet still love and respect your parent.

I'm sure there are many other teachers who do this but not only do I bring out the fact that the Texans were technically on the wrong side of the argument I remind students that the Sons of Liberty who participated in the Boston Tea Party were destroying private property. We also talk about the great minds of our Founding Fathers and how they wanted liberty yet they were unwilling to resolve the slavery question at the outset during the Constitutional Convention.

Luckily I've never seen a standardized test that asks questions based on a historical myth of untruth. In Georgia our "test" is based on the standards, so I if I stick to the standards which is chronological American History I'm good to go. In a way I teach to test, but I'm teaching the standards too. I don't feel as if all I do is teach with the test in mind. I'm aware of how the questions will be posed and I'm aware that maps, charts, and graphs will be used to present information. This means I try to incorporate analysis of maps, etc. into each and every unit I teach.

It's so easy to be misled in history because there are so many resources that are wrong or not factually correct...I catch myself all the time having to change how I think about something as I discover new information I didn't know existed. Unfortunately there are too many teachers that I've witnessed who are unwilling to go beyond the textbook and actually become more knowledgeable about what they teach therefore they don't have the knowledge to manipulate the content from unit to unit in order to make long range connections.

This is a great topic. I'm glad you wrote about it.