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 keller, a socialist? 
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Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:00 pm
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after reading the article on helen keller, i am blown away. many of the points made about rosa parks are ones i have heard before but never in my life have i learned so much about helen keller that i did not know! i am amazed at people's misleading and incomplete tales of her life and cannot imagine what she would think of her current placement in history. reading this article really makes me wonder how many more people that i have only half-learned about in school...
so how could this happen? well, ruth hubbard (the author of the article) gives a couple suggestions...first that we tend to learn history not as much through its important movements and/or the actions of a community as a whole, but instead through the personal actions of a particular individual- proof again of america's indivualistic nature. secondly, hubbard notes that, "the mythical helen keller creates a politically conservative moral lesson, one that stresses the ability of the individual to overcome personal adversity in a fair world." so helen keller fought for the poor and disadvantaged. she brought to the world's attention the falseness of meritocracy in america and was not afraid to discuss the taboo subjects of our society. helen keller was much much more than i ever imagined and i am very thankful for reading this article. any other incredible falsities that i should know about?

ps- has anybody else read loewen's "lies my teacher told me..."? it sounds very intriguing to say the least...


Tue Apr 13, 2004 5:06 pm
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:04 pm
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Location: App. Heights
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I too was very much taken aback by the revelation that Helen Keller was such a militant proponent of socialism, and this is coming from someone who knows a little about Eugene Debs and Clarence Darrow and other early proponents of the socialst movement. I suppose the real question for me is do I approach that subject seeing as how I plan to be teaching elementary age kids.

My father has a copy of a follow-up title called "Lies My (History) Teacher Told Me." and I plan to be looking into it.

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Tue May 04, 2004 3:22 pm
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