Since last week I have been trying to take meaning from My Lai and the lynching post cards and relate then to teaching in today's society. As a somewhat avctive and aware U.S. citizen I constanly struggle with our history and our current foreign and domestic policies. As I future teacher I wonder what effect I can make on students in reguards to this. Sure all of our classes stress diversity and tolerence. But how can we teach and model that to our kids if our very nation doesn't always model this. (I know this is kind of a left wing view, so excuse my biases.) We all have different opinions, but over and over again our country shows us that its okay to force our own way of life on others if they have something we want.
I was just wondering if anyone else feels the way I do or if any one has any other thoughts. Please feel free comment. I belive that U.S. policy is directly related to our everyday life and education.

i am in agreeance when you say that US policy is a direct influence in the way we present our nation and its politics in comparison to the rest of the world to our students. While i do believe our country is ethnocentric and sometimes presumptuous, when it comes to imposing our form of government and economics to struggling countries which we have monetary interest in, i also do believe that there are ways to give our students a perspective of the world that gives to each country its own importance in traditions and individual growth throught govt and economics. While still instilling a sense of pride in their own country. It is important to make a theme of what is right for some is not always right for others a theme in the classroom whether its in us policy or just multicultural awareness and acceptance throught normalcy not just "tolerance" of differences.

i sort of went into a tangent but i think i got mostly on point

This is something that I am constantly struggling with as well. Being a Canadian and only having 2 semesters of U.S. History under my belt (and it seems that is all I will have...) I have had a hard time understanding the U.S. and, to be honest, all of its shortcomings. I cannot imagine how on earth I will be able to teach the subject (if I have to) when I myself am not always convinced of the greatness of this country.
So, thinking of it that way, one of the things that has always helped me feel pride in this nation and what it stands for is hearing stories of immigrants ("real" immigrants...not a Canadian like myself!) and how their lives have been drastically improved by living in the United States.
As far as this country's history goes, I don't think it's unfavorable for the student to hear about all the tragic events that have been scattered along the way. I have learned to appreciate the history of this country by hearing about its shortcomings and mistakes. The honesty in it is what intrigues me, and I just hope that we can educate students nowadays in the truth about this country.
Yet, I'm still unsure of how to leave out some of our feelings about it. I can't walk into a U.S. History class with the chip on my shoulder that I feel but I think it will be possible.

I don't have any answers to the excellent questions that you raise, but I wanted to let you know I feel the same way. We talk about the US acting in the best interests of people who live under oppression, but which oppressors do we choose to take on? Usually those who have something that we want. There are plenty more people out there in the world who don't live under democratically elected governments, but we sure pick and choose whom we will attempt to unseat. We haven't done a thing about North Korea, for example. I agree that we are not modeling tolerance and I don't know how we can justify this to our students.

From my perspective, when we teach a complete view of US history with both its glorious successes AND its terrifying inadequacies, we are revealing the true greatness of this country, which is located in part in a sustained willingness to encourage self-reflection and to wrestle with our own contradictions. (Not to mention, meanwhile, making history class interesting to students!)

I heard a quote awhile ago that once said history is written by winners. Meaning only the winners were around to say what happened on the battle field. Having been there understand that when I say war is not about taking land, or fighting for a just purpose or ever for democracy. When your there it is only about surviving. History happens when everything is over, and the leaders that were not there try to sort out what they won and what the lost. It wasn't until recently, (as in Korea, Vietanm Wars) when we started to document what the foot soilder did, saw, and encountered out on the battle field. How it broke the man down, and destroyed his soul, made him do things that he nor his country will ever be proud of. Now, we as up coming teachers have the obligation, and burden to have both the winners, and losers stories and to tell them to our students so they better understand what a war is, and how to stay away from them..... Sorry about the rambling.