Why do public schools knowingly teach False information?

This is an issue that is really bothering me... Here is an example of what I mean.

In history classes all over the nation, students are being taught that the US Civil War was fought over slavery. They are being told by their teachers that slavery, was the reason the war started, and that freeing the slaves was the goal from the start.

This, in my opinion is almost an attempt to glorify the U.S. Government... To hide the fact that everything (Especially in the US) revolves around the mighty dollar bill... And to make it seem like they actually REALLY care about the rights of their citizens.

I've talked to history teachers about this... Some of which even know that what they are teaching isnt true, but they must teach it because its what the state told them they must.

Am I the only one that is really bothered by this?

Whats the deal?

Its all about controlling the minds of the population. All governments do it, its just they do it in different ways or settings. Some brainwash (USA), others just beat it into you from child hood and your not taught anything else.

Only one possible reason and that is that the powers that be do not want the truth to be taught. I understand that the civil war was about taxes, trade and business between the North and South. The North wanted to annex the South but that is not a noble cause is it?

What about a lot of other history for example? Like WWII or the Vietnam war or others?

The first settlers that came to America...the brave new...what ever....came here for money. They thought there was gold here. The civil war was fought as said in the above post. It was later told to the men that were losing faith in the war, that it was being fought for slavery. That they bought into, and fought for. So it was a matter of the persident lying to them so they would feel good killing. Not unlike what is happening today in iraq. History repeats itself.

Oh yeah, most definitely...

There are many other things, not just the civil war. I chose that specifically because its what I know the most about.

Having attended public schools my entire life, their ways are all I know.

Does anyone know if the same issues come up in private schools?


The movie Braveheart opens with an extremely truthful line that goes something like, "History was written by the men that hung heroes."

Well not all of them do.

But for the following reasons;

1. They'd lose their jobs if they did'nt.
2. They actually don't realise it's untrue.


I'd like to note to that not all schools are like that, for instance my
U.S. History teacher has taught us the reasons the French, Spanish
and English originally came here, which would be;

Spanish: Spreading Christianity, Gold/profit, Glory.
French: Spreading Christianity, Spices, Gold/profit.
English: Freedom of Religion, Gold/profit, Glory.

Anyways, the point is not all teachers or schools do teach falacies
as fact.

[edit on 9/17/2006 by iori_komei]

Originally posted by Vheissu2112
This is an issue that is really bothering me... Here is an example of what I mean.

In history classes all over the nation, students are being taught that the US Civil War was fought over slavery. They are being told by their teachers that slavery, was the reason the war started, and that freeing the slaves was the goal from the start.

This, in my opinion is almost an attempt to glorify the U.S. Government... To hide the fact that everything (Especially in the US) revolves around the mighty dollar bill... And to make it seem like they actually REALLY care about the rights of their citizens.

I've talked to history teachers about this... Some of which even know that what they are teaching isnt true, but they must teach it because its what the state told them they must.

Am I the only one that is really bothered by this?

Whats the deal?

Good point, it was actually an economic war. Caused by the invention of the cotton gin, and the South wanting to become it's own countries after achieveing economic stabality. With Americans from the east going out west, it caused political, social, and economic destabilities within the US. But this would cause major inflation with Exported and Imported goods with Britian and France, and Eastern Europe. So the Union refused to let the 6, or 7 states resign. So then we have the Civil War. Slavery was a secondary issue that had finally come to a head by that time that Abraham Lincon wanted to address. This has been paraphrased from the book, "That's not in my american history book" by Thomas Ayers. Thomas Ayers is a former New York Times Reporter.

[edit on 9/17/2006 by smalllight]

Originally posted by R3KR
that it was being fought for slavery. That they bought into, and fought for. So it was a matter of the persident lying to them so they would feel good killing. Not unlike what is happening today in iraq. History repeats itself.

but this can't be true either because how many of those people fighting on either side would risk their life over slavery? Those people had to understand that it was a struggle for survival on some level and historians have used the slavery argument to coverup the truth.

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
but this can't be true either because how many of those people fighting on either side would risk their life over slavery? Those people had to understand that it was a struggle for survival on some level and historians have used the slavery argument to coverup the truth.

Of course it can be true, as od as it may sound to you, nay most people,
there are people who are willing to fight and die to bring freedom to the
oppressed.

Lincoln may very well have been against slavery, but he freed them only to cripple the southern states economy. I'm sure many people were against slavery, but none of them were willing to kill fellow white men to free a slave.

ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY.

Money is the root of all evil.

I have books with writings from the 18th century with the Founding Fathers writings, and they needed the slaves to survive themsleves. Thomas Paine even admits that he hears of them while at the beginning at the war, and foreshadows their freeing later, as well, as hints at support of abolishists then, back at the Revoulutionary War. But the best way for the American democracy to stay in place in society is to teach it as fundamental in schools.

They don't hide the cover up(the ecomonic reasons) in textbooks, they demote it as a "secondary cause" by the way they write it. They don't hide so much at the high school level through. But it is still treated as such. They really don't tell people till college age. I just got bored and found out much earlier on the internet.

Originally posted by Vheissu2112
Does anyone know if the same issues come up in private schools?

Well, there are a lot of generalizations made in private schools. I don't remember if they taught us the Civil War was caused by slavery. But I remember the quality gets better as you go along, as more details are revealed to you as you go higher up in grades. If your experience was like mine, in early elementary we had "social studies" then they used the term "history" to teach basically the same type stuff, then as you got older classes got more specialized, like "Classical Mediterranean History," "Modern Western European History." So naturally, the more specialized the environment, the more details you were taught. Then finally, you go to college and it gets even better (if you're lucky.) What I experienced was more like "generalizations" and vagueness than out-right lies.

I went to the same prep school from pre-K through highschool graduation, so I can't compare it to the public schools. My parents still actually have some of my old textbooks from elementary school and I've browsed through them for giggles and grins in the past - nothing really sticks out as a lie, but sure you can see stuff that's "not the whole truth." I can say, however, that if you compare an AP class to a regular class the difference is night-and-day, and from what I've seen, normal history classes are insane wastes of time and the students would have been better served if their teacher turned on the History Channel for the kids and took a nap.

Originally posted by iori_komei
Of course it can be true, as od as it may sound to you, nay most people,
there are people who are willing to fight and die to bring freedom to the
oppressed.

Are you willing today to die for the oppressed of the world? I highly doubt it myself but I could be wrong of course. Have known many people that cry for peace but run the other way when blood is shed. Furthermore, we had people in the North (where there was some slavery too...), that were largely ignorant about the subject.. going to war to die over it? Then we had the south going to war to die so that they could maintain slavery? From the point of view of the south it makes more sense due to their economic system and way of life but I fail to see why the North would get emotional about it.

Remember the civil war didn't lead to civil rights for about 100 years later.

lincoln wasnt agaist slavery. He was willing to accept it in the southern states. Tomas Jefferson was also not against slavery.

Originally posted by AlphaHumana

Originally posted by Vheissu2112
Does anyone know if the same issues come up in private schools?

Well, there are a lot of generalizations made in private schools. I don't remember if they taught us the Civil War was caused by slavery. But I remember the quality gets better as you go along, as more details are revealed to you as you go higher up in grades. Then finally, you go to college and it gets even better (if you're lucky.) What I experienced was more like "generalizations" and vagueness than out-right lies.

....I've browsed through them for giggles and grins in the past - nothing really sticks out as a lie, but sure you can see stuff that's "not the whole truth." I can say, however, that if you compare an AP class to a regular class the difference is night-and-day, and from what I've seen, normal history classes are insane wastes of time and the students would have been better served if their teacher turned on the History Channel for the kids and took a nap.

I agree, I love history. I still do, I probably always will. But I bored more in history class, because I learned more on the net and the History Channel than in class. But History class reinforced most of it into my mind. All because I missed "camp week" in middle school, due to emotional problems. I was in an AP Asian Studies History class. But thier "easy work" was more interesting and more fun than ours, and I just got completely hooked on History like crazy ever since.

But I think, when they do text books, they shouldn't over wash as much as they do. They mention the cotton gin in school, but they say the slavery for it caused the war, when it was the South's economic expansion at the time, and the possible economic crippling of America and the possible disslovment of the country that more or less caused it. Slavery was like a zit, sooner or later the US had to deal with it.

Are you willing today to die for the oppressed of the world?

Yes.
And so our alot of people in the military, though not all of them.

video.google.com...

G. Edward Griffin interviews 83 year-old Norman Dodd in 1982 in a rare interview that exposes the tax-exempt foundations hidden agenda. He explains the infiltration of banking and the manipulation of the education system.

Norman Dodd served as the 1954 staff director of the Reece Congressional Special Committee to investigate tax-exempt foundations.

Reece Committee
www.sourcewatch.org...

Brazilla Carroll Reece (December 22, 1889–March 19, 1961) was a U.S. Representative from Tennessee.
en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Vheissu2112
Money is the root of all evil.

actually its the "love" of money that is the root of all evil, not the money itself.


R3KR, When you say Lincoln wasn't against slavery, and would have accepted it in the southern states do you mean if the south agreed to not try to seperate and just stayed as part of the country? I could see how the war was fought over money, and Lincoln wasnt really againt slavery, but saw that using it as an excuse could be used as a powerful tool to criple the south and prevent them from breaking away from the US.

schoolteach false information intentionally because, they fear the lawyers and public opinions of others. Schools often do not want to spend time and money argureing with certian poliitically active groups. Schools, teachs will say or imply for axample that there are just as many males as nurses as there are female nurses or that there are as many female electrical or chemical engineers as there are male engereers, school boards do not want to fight the expensive legal fights that result from chanrges of not being "P.C". It is cheaper quicker and easier to tell people the lies they want to here.