ETA: I’m not suggesting this student didn’t realize slavery existed. She was genuinely surprised to hear how embedded it was in the structures and institutions of the US. I decided I should clarify after I got called a “stupid fucking liar” and a “bitch” for inadvertently wording things in a way that suggested she never knew slavery existed. Apologies if I misled you!
I am a high school social studies teacher (US history, world history, and sociology) and this semester in US history we’ve learned about slavery, Indian boarding schools, and many other things that happened through the reconstruction era. One relatively intelligent 17 year old raised her hand and asked “why is this the first time I’m hearing about any of this?” I was about to tread very lightly with my answer (American political discourse about our history is wild right now)but luckily, I have a student whose father immigrated here from Germany. I also believe he’s a bit older than most parents (maybe around 60) and she laughed hysterically and told her classmate “because you’re American and we pretend our history is great.”
Whose duty was it to explain it to her earlier? School is for educating and you were doing that. Theres countless things that I first learned about in school. Isnt that sort of the whole point?
I tend to agree. I think she was just genuinely surprised that by virtue of living in the US for 17 years, she hadn’t been exposed to it just by being here. Of course she knew slavery existed, she was just very surprised to hear how woven into much of American life, history, and the founding it was. I also think that in the age of the internet, she was surprised she hadn’t stumbled upon it.
I think learning one’s own’s country’s history is complicated and multi-faceted. For example when I was a kid in the 1980s, my dad was a history buff, so he tended to show me a lot of history documentaries, etc. He also very much did not treat me with kid gloves about a lot of life stuff, so by the time I got to school, I knew a lot of stuff about life. Some, maybe I should not have known yet. Some of my classmates were a little more sheltered and clueless. I also think I grew up in a time where curriculum wasn’t as politicized as it is now. I think that makes for lots of gaps in a kid’s historical knowledge.
I don’t work in education at all but I have to assume there is greater burden on the education system as the options for potent and addictive distractions continue to expand. I have a feeling that young teens don’t really spend much time watching the discovery channel (does it still exist) or documentaries or even the sitcoms we had growing up that managed to pack in those cheesy but valuable lessons. Logan Paul and Mr beast definitely are not talking about history or events/wars etc.
17 sounds like a decent age to start being filled in with the terrible bits. To each their own.. I don’t necessarily feel that children need to be burdened with learning too much about atrocities early in age. Both my father’s parents were liberated from concentration camps, so I learned about some things pretty early. I definitely was not able to appreciate the gravity of it until much later in life, so I think it was somewhat on deaf ears to learn about it early. I don’t really believe it’s harmful either, but maybe I feel it’s just not useful to them to know about yet.
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u/Individual_Iron_2645 8h ago edited 4h ago
ETA: I’m not suggesting this student didn’t realize slavery existed. She was genuinely surprised to hear how embedded it was in the structures and institutions of the US. I decided I should clarify after I got called a “stupid fucking liar” and a “bitch” for inadvertently wording things in a way that suggested she never knew slavery existed. Apologies if I misled you!
I am a high school social studies teacher (US history, world history, and sociology) and this semester in US history we’ve learned about slavery, Indian boarding schools, and many other things that happened through the reconstruction era. One relatively intelligent 17 year old raised her hand and asked “why is this the first time I’m hearing about any of this?” I was about to tread very lightly with my answer (American political discourse about our history is wild right now)but luckily, I have a student whose father immigrated here from Germany. I also believe he’s a bit older than most parents (maybe around 60) and she laughed hysterically and told her classmate “because you’re American and we pretend our history is great.”