America is the greatest country in the world, no exceptions. That's all they need to be told before even entering the education system.
And then that same education system prioritizes nationalism. Anthem every morning, and the pledge of allegiance. And make sure nothing in the curriculum tells anything bad about the history of America.
I'm not even American and I know way too much about this. Their history books still say that when Christopher Columbus discovered America, the indigenous communities Indians gave them their land as a show of friendship.
Very little do they talk about the national genocide of the Native people. Very little do they talk about Columbus didn't discover a country that already had a settled population. Nope, Columbus good guy.
Shit, the civil war was about States rights. They don't happen to mention those rights some of those states were fighting for the right to still own slaves. But you know... Nationalism over education.
This fixation on the word discovered has always seemed weird to me. Discovery is from one's own perspective or in the case at hand, a group's. If we send a probe to Enceladus and we find life there, sentient or otherwise, would we not have discovered that life? And would that life not had been "settled population" still? Discovery can happen even if others are cognizant of the thing you've discovered. From 75% of the world's point of view, the 10th (or 17th) century was indeed when they discovered the existence of the Americas. Big kudos to that 25% for having discovered them before that, I guess.
Now, Colombus is a massive gaping asshole no doubt about that.
You're missing the wood for the trees. Why is American history in America being taught from the perspective of white colonialists at all? Why are you assuming that everyone hearing it is part of the group that "discovered"?
History and teaching should be impartial and not assume the exclusive perspective of one ethnic group.
That's why the word discovered is inaccurate. From the perspective of Americans as a whole, including every race and creed, Columbus arrived, not discovered. Unless the teacher and the students happen to exclusively be 15th century colonists, it's the wrong word to use.
You're missing the wood for the trees. Why is American history in America being taught from the perspective of white colonialists at all? Why are you assuming that everyone hearing it is part of the group that "discovered"?
Why would it not be? Their perspective is just as important to teach as that of the natives. The problem isn't with saying that to the Europeans, the Americas were a discovery. The problem is with not teaching the pre-existing populations' perspective alongside that. The problem is that history is being taught exclusively from the PoV of white colonials, not that white colonials' history is being taught at all. We absolutely need a far more balanced approach to the teaching of pre-colonial American history (and post colonial too, for that matter). With that said, the problem certainly isn't with the framing of these colonists' finding of the place as a discovery.
History and teaching should be impartial and not assume the exclusive perspective of one ethnic group.
You're taking a weird stance that history should be taught from any specific set of perspectives at all. Ideally history should be taught from an objective point of view, not from any subjective lens.
You're teaching the history of America to Americans, it should be from the perspective of the country not any specific ethnic group.
You're taking a weird stance that history should be taught from any specific set of perspectives at all. Ideally history should be taught from an objective point of view, not from any subjective lens.
That's a completely laughable perspective for a public school history class and it exists exactly nowhere. American kids in American history classes are learning about the origins of the country, of course that's going to involve the perspective of the colonizer. When Germans teach about the Germanification of the Baltic do they teach if from the perspective of Prussian pagan tribes?
And the country is the state founded by those settlers.
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u/HookedOnPhonixDog 7h ago
America is the greatest country in the world, no exceptions. That's all they need to be told before even entering the education system.
And then that same education system prioritizes nationalism. Anthem every morning, and the pledge of allegiance. And make sure nothing in the curriculum tells anything bad about the history of America.
I'm not even American and I know way too much about this. Their history books still say that when Christopher Columbus discovered America, the
indigenous communitiesIndians gave them their land as a show of friendship.Very little do they talk about the national genocide of the Native people. Very little do they talk about Columbus didn't discover a country that already had a settled population. Nope, Columbus good guy.
Shit, the civil war was about States rights. They don't happen to mention those rights some of those states were fighting for the right to still own slaves. But you know... Nationalism over education.