on the topic of history education

[swan_tower]

In light of my earlier rant about post-Reconstruction history education (especially in Texas), I now kind of want to slam my head into a wall until the pain goes away.

The snarky response here, of course, is that it hardly matters what the standards are, since the students will never make it past Reconstruction anyway. But snark aside . . . it's enough to make me cry blood.

I love my home state, but in the way one loves a child that really needs to be sent to reform school for its own good.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Texas: It's like a whole other country. (And don't you wish it were?)

[ailaes.livejournal.com]

I love my home state, but in the way one loves a child that really needs to be sent to reform school for its own good.

I...er...yeah.

I was born there, have family down in TX but good grief.

~headdeskheaddeak~

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

No, I don't. See above about it being my home state, and me having love for it despite its flaws.

[lowellboyslash.livejournal.com]

For the record: I had probably one of the best public school educations in the nation. In Texas. Where we learned about all KINDS of liberal stuff.

Texas isn't wholly evil--it's just run by a lot of extremely close-minded people. Texas needs more open-minded people to fight hard for learning Actual Facts in schools. Maybe then more kids will have a high school like I had.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I also went to a very good public high school. But I still got a shitty post-Reconstruction history education, and the liberalness of my school would not help much if the state standards put the curriculum in a conservative straightjacket.

But no, the state isn't evil.

[n4o.livejournal.com]

This makes me extremely guilty for being a senior this year. I've always hated the way that Texas teaches history (actually, the way it teaches us in general - which is why I've stepped away and started taking dual credit courses through the local community college) - but if they're dumbing down textbooks even more then I don't want to leave my younger friends behind.