God forbid that in this period of time that I say something "unpatriotic", but I must express my doubts about what kids are learning about in history class. I am not as concerned about what students are learning today as I am about what they are not learning. I feel that public schools today are an institution of the state, and as such they promote state interests. In a high school history class students learn that America is the grandest country of all and we can never go wrong. What I know now about America would be considered nothing less than heresy in the public school history classroom today. Do our students not deserve the truth? Do they learn that the United States, the most "free" country in the world, imprisoned Japanese-Americans in interment camps during WWII? Do they learn that America's foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor? Do they learn about the OSS (the early version of the CIA) assissting the infamous communist Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam in 1945? Do they learn about the repeated attempts of the CIA and the Mafia working together to kill Fidel Castro and the Bay of Pigs incident? Do they hear about the controversy that has surrounded the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for the past forty years? Do they hear about the controversy surrounding the Tonkin Gulf incident in Vietnam or My Lai? Do they hear about Watergate or the Iran Contra Scandal? More recently do the hear about the U.S. violation of the Geneva Convention Accords with or invasion of Iraq or the profits that such companies as Haliberton are making from it? I don't think so. Should they be taught these things? If we cherish what liberty we have, we must teach them these things. I will teach my students these thhings and many others, no matter how dangerous this may be to "the establishment". For those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.

Michael, I definitely agree with you- I too am concerned about what students are not being taught. Until I got to college I NEVER heard a teacher say anything even remotely "unpatriotic". Shouldn't we teach students to question all of the so-called "facts" in their textbooks. History is all about INTERPRETATION of past events - so all viewpoints should be explained and studied. History should not be minimized in attempt to protect students from events viewed as contraversial, embarrassing, or tragic. In doing so- the end product- will be "educated" adults who will suffer from "one-sighted-ness". (I'm not sure that is a word, but I think you all know what I mean).

I agree and disagree with you Michael. I am also worried about what chlidren are not learning in history classes today. But also at the same time, the teacher has to go by the curriculum. I wish the curriculum wasn't so structured. Usually, the teacher adds things that the curriculum does not touch on. One thing I don't agree on is how teachers are teaching that America is the best country in the world and does no wrong. If I just got done teaching a lesson on slavery and my students didn't feel some sort of remorse or anger toward the institution, I would feel like I haven't done my job. It's not like I want to bring out heavy emotions in students, but it is human nature to feel that way about things like that. I'm not meaning to sound contradicting, but I know that thinking back in past history classes, we do mostly learn about the good things this country has accomplished. Every country is going to hype up good things that has happened in their country. That's just a part of pride you feel towards your country and in America's case, it's the curriculum. If the curriculum weren't so structured, I do think that there would be a more diverse knowledge and thought about different aspects of U.S. history.

I think that what we do and do not teach in a classroom is connected to the five issues of power that Lisa Delpit writes about in her article. She talks about how issues of power are enacted in the classroom. She talks about the power that publishers have ove text books and the developers of the curriculum to determine the view of the world and how it is presented. She breaks down the process of scocialization in to issues of power. I feel that it is so important that future teachers think about what is and is not being taught in the classroom. How do you get textbooks changed and the curriculum structured around a more openminded view of discussion about the country that we live in? We can always bring supplementary materials in our class rooms, but what will the people who have power over our curriculum have to say about that? I just don't know...

There is so much to history that kids should surely learn the major events; however, there are so many minor (some would consider major) events that it's hard for the people who make the curriculum to determine what should be there and what shouldn't. This goes along with how literate students should be in their history and who determines the cultural events that students should know and understand.

i dunno about all this, but i know that many of the things that Michael listed that he was not taught in high school...i WAS taught in high school. so maybe we can't blame the entirety of America or the entirety of all schools in American...but perhaps just certain schools or certain individuals? i know that i knew about mai lai in high school, and i knew about bay of pigs and our attempts to kill castro. i knew that the american government had helped people that we later regretted helping. i knew that we had placed japanese americans in camps and i knew about slavery. for these later things, i knew that we as a nation should recognize our wrong doings. maybe there is a common trend to teach that America is infallible, or at least the greatest nation. but its not necessarily the fault of the country as a whole. i'm not really trying to say that the things michael said aren't true of a lot of places...i'm just trying to say that they're not true of ALL places, and maybe we should place blame on the people who are not teaching history as it should be instead of the nation as a whole.

Good topic, and I'm hoping more and more Bill Bigelow's come on to the seen. I loved what he said about the concept of "we" being unfair to folks who weren't a part of certain actions. I believe students should certainly be made aware of all pertinent issues that have gone on in this country and because of this country. I'm still blown away that I'd never heard of the Mai Lai massacre. I do also hope that the positive things about this country can be presented in a way that will inspire change in this country. Students should understand how the Constitution was designed in a way that enables us to go against the grain. They need to know that we may not be able change Capitalism today, but we can surely do our best not to give into it.