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Originally Posted by blush
I totally agree with you. And this is an issue most folks don't know much about. But most of what we know about history comes from these textbooks. They are the source of our culture's working knowledge. It is where censorship and cultural agendas are played out. Columbus is the classic example of this. Curriculum still states that he is taught as an explorer looking for spices. In the spite of autobiographical diaries in which he describes his quest for gold and methods for enslaving native Americans.
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This really is something that awareness needs to raised about. Has to be extremely frustrating for teachers pouring themselves into their work. And with the shift to the "testing" in public schools.
My late partner taught elementary grades and she and a team teacher (a Native American) gave their 5th grade class the "real" history of the slaughter of Native Americans within the California Mission system. This was before the curriculum and testing requirements were in place as they are today.
The class was taken to a Mission on a field trip wherein one little girl asked the Mission guide at one point- "Where are the mass Indian graves." He said- "We don't talk much about those much."
Out of the mouths of babes...