Stories: Whose are told and whose remain in the margins?
One of the stories that I think is told to everyone in their schooling history is Christopher Columbus. You can ask pretty much everyone and they will say Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. This information is told all throughout school levels going into a deeper dive the older that a student gets in the school system. This story though also has parts that remain in the margins in the fact that in school we do not learn all the facts that happened with Columbus and what all he did in order for him to "discover the America's" This is one of the stories that came to mind because now that I am in college I am finding out things that happened that I should of learned when I was in middle school or even high school, but the education system that hold things back that they really do not want students to be learning. They are withholding the whole truth in order to make certain things look better then what they really are.
A story that remains in the margins that I had to learn more about once I came to college was Juneteenth. This date is very important because it is a day that over 250,000 African American slaves were set free. This is a story that is essential to learning that is withheld from students learning and with that it should be something that is taught because of how important it is for the slaves that were set free as well as the statement it made that the slaves were finally free and that this was finally coming to an end. As students who learn about history this should be taught because of the importance.
Taylor, I agree with you. I think that we were not given the entire information regarding key events or people throughout history. I agree I remember being taught only the good and never the bad when learning about key historical figures. For example, you used Christopher Columbus in which in elementary school through high school we memorized the little saying Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. We learned only the good that he discovered what we now know as America. When coming to college however, I felt blindsided to the information being taught because it wasn't what I thought and we were only taught about those historical points in which we learned that Christopher Columbus was actually a bad dude who killed tons of innocent people when he took over through disease and brutality of being in a new place. I also agree that withholding the entire truth of a subject or person is unacceptable to a certain degree. For example younger elementary children don't exactly need to know some of the dark truths surrounding historical figures such as Christopher Columbus but by middle school topics like these should be taught fully so students can get a better understanding of the history that occurred and its importance.
ReplyDeleteHi Taylor! Like I mentioned in another comment, I am with my roommate as I write these comments and I'm asking her questions about the topic and her and I have both come to the conclusion that we were withheld so much information in middle and high school. A lot of the information that I now know, I was taught on my own or in college. It's insane to me that most U.S. students will go at least 17 years without accurate information on our history. Ultimately, it's heartbreaking. I don't understand how this curriculum is beneficial to our citizens and to our society in any way. What I’m glad about now though, is that there are so many people who are starting to notice the flaws in our curriculum and hopefully over time we can all come together to take action to make a change in the way our students are being taught and what they are being taught.
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