North Carolina Schools May Cut Chunk Out of U.S. History Lessons

reply to post by Lillydale


Yes, as time moves forward bits will get dropped in general classes and then you'll have to courses of specific time frames. But I do not know of any nation that eliminates its own founding, that's a pretty major event.

Using the same reasoning maybe they can approach other subjects the same way.

Math, just go straight to multiplication and division...in our exponential world students wouldn't be in touch with basic addition and subtraction (that's what calculators are for).

Languages, just grammar and composition, no need to waste time with building blocks such as the meaning and spelling of words. Students aren't "connected" to whole words... we live in the age of texting, why bother?

[edit on 4-2-2010 by Scalded Frog]

Originally posted by bsbray11

They already cut out history though. How many of you know of the 1921 Coal Miner's War when thousands of armed coal miners marched on West Virginia demanding fair employment practices, and WVA called a state of emergency and had to petition the federal government to send the military in?

That's right, I doubt any of you have ever heard of that.

I only have because it happened in my own back yard, and I barely even heard about it at that.

I know about it. Grew up just south of there, in a coal-mining family, amongst coal miners, in Russell and Tazewell Counties in Virginia. Tazewell county in particular is just across the big ridge from where most of the events took place. I know all about Matewan, the Battle of Blair Mountain, the whole nine yards. Folks from there haven't forgotten, and taking one side or the other in an argument over it can STILL get you thumped. When I was growing up, a young war would break out all over again like clockwork every 3 years when the UMWA contract was up for renewal.

In reference to the NC curriculum change, this is the first I've heard of it, and I live in NC now. I have a son in the 9th grade, and he just started his economics and civics classes this semester, which, according to the OP, isn't supposed to start until next year. I don't know how that happened, really, but he IS in some sort of advanced placement classes, which could explain it.

I'll keep an eye out for what's up with it, but can assure you that MINE will know their history, ALL of it, as I don't count on the state to teach 'em the important stuff.

The state ALWAYS messes that up!

Originally posted by Hypntick

At least decades ago they tried to hide it a bit better. They're not even trying any more. Anyone who lives in NC needs to try and make their voice heard that this is complete BS. Of all places North Carolina, I really suspected that California or Massachusetts would be the first to try and pull this on us.

Oh, they'll make themselves heard, alright, if this gets around here!

The OP mentioned that history will start at 1877, and run up from there. That cut's out the most heathenish parts of Reconstruction, and folks around here won't want that forgotten. Hell, a sizeable portion of the natives here are still aware that they live in the 10th Military District, and are acutely aware that they are in Occupied Territory! There's a lot of history behind that, but according to the natives, evidently the Occupation after the Civil War was never officially declared over.

Notice I said "natives". In recent years, there has been a great influx of "northerners", who couldn't care less. Matter of fact, if this gets around here, I'm sure a lot of the natives will blame it on the guilty consciences of the "northerners", who they'll be certain are pushing this to sweep their guilt under the rug.

Oh, yeah, life could get exciting!

I'm pretty sure I've heard the saying somewhere;

"North Carolina: First in Flight, Last in Education"

This pretty much coins that statement into validity as far as I'm concerned. Though I don't really have much to say, considering my education was spotty at best. If the teachers were not on strike, which they always are, we would usually completely glance over huge swaths of history.

The Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, Civil War, etc. All of this was covered very briefly, and never again. My fondest memories of these subjects, and frankly all I ever remember being taught about them, were the movies that the teacher would play on the roller cart TVs. Like the Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot". Anything else on the subject was pretty vague, and there was never exercises to remember any of it. Frankly, the education sucked, the only thing that mattered was trying to remember the answers to test questions so you could "appear smart" numbers wise when you applied for college down the road.

Sad.

Yeah, I heard that some states want to secede from the US...

We now see a state that is just itching to get kicked out.

Since noone else will take action against this stupidity, perhaps the Governors of the states should get together for a summit. Show some opinion on what the subordinates in other states are proposing (nonbinding).

Something of a 'political super bowl' hosted by different states each six months.

They have the power. MSM would have a hard time ignoring at least highlights of each state bragging rights for great ideas and shaming others for retarded ideas. Like the one suggested in NC.

Isn't John Edwards from NC?

Anyhow, I've always thought that Ohio should be first to get kicked out but that's just my opinion.

Originally posted by DrMattMaddix

Isn't John Edwards from NC?

Yeah, he is. We keep trying to give him away, and he keeps finding his way back somehow.

Think yourselves lucky!

Here in the UK, my education of history ended at the age of 14. I'm not alone in this.

At 14/15 you have to take "Options", in which you choose which areas you will concentrate on. I personally chose the arts and science, which meant that I could not choose either history or geography (strangely enough Religeous Education was not an option and I didn't even go to a faith school).

Thank God for books is all I can say, there's nothing better than self education

[edit for spellnig]

[edit on 4-2-2010 by nik1halo]

Dubing Down is happening everywhere.

The only answer is to educate your children yourself.

For the life of me I don't understand why teacher in the USA and the UK have ever allowed the governments to take over teaching curriculum.

We used to be bright.

Why did we allow this to happen?

Originally posted by Lillydale
I am not arguing at all here but the thread got me thinking. There is a point where history will have to begin being edited down to cliff's notes. Think about 9th grade history 500 years from now. Are they still going to be expected to know 1000 years worth of history at the end of the year? How will we decide which things to teach and which not? Just wondering.

Haha!

Think about that statement. Here in Europe, we laugh at the US concept of "history". I used to work in a pub that was older than your country. The town I live in was mentioned in the doomesday book of 1086, mentioning churches that still exist, nearly 1000 years later.

History will always be taught regarding any great event, such as wars, changes in political views etc etc.

I really don't believe that it's coincidental that we're hearing more and more about this kind of thing now during the Obama administration. Statist/fascists all over the place are really feeling empowered now.

This is no surprise.

I live in California where our kids are subjected to endless standardized tests all year long that measure the progress a school is making in keeping students within a desired range of ability for their grade.

My daughter recently told me that the history segments of the standardized tests are always open book and that this is the only subject handled in this manner.

What that says to me is that someone at the top would prefer kids not do any actual reading ahead of time because they might retain the information for future reference or, worse yet, develop an interest in history and pursue it in depth. God forbid our kids apply any critical thinking to topics of a historical nature or acquire an actual understanding of the history of politics, war, and the money system.

And certainly we don't want them finding out governments sometimes kill their own presidents. Oh, wait, I forgot . . . you can only learn about that in books that document factual history, not in the sugar-coated versions supplied in our schools.

reply to post by searching4truth


Searching4truth must have discovered? the home schooling option whether online or off.....lest your off-Spring from the State.....unto the shoulders of Giants.

Regardless, it's One's choice If one does so.

reply to post by searching4truth


My niece was up last year from N.Carolina during spring break...she brought civics homework to do.....I looked over a few pages and, found a paragraph where the book said....

"NO ONE may question Gov...it has the final word"

that's NOT what I was taught in school here in central Mass.

I was taught the PEOPLE control the Gov.....and to ALWAYS question....not the case today

seems that different parts of the country are having the rules changed

I guess if your going to take over, you need to sneak in the back door.

Great, our dumbed down children are going to learn even less about their heritage, and especially the part about the responsibilities of citizens to uphold the Constitution and stand up for their country. They don't seem to need this as modern slave/serfs in the modern world.
Actually it would be good to emphasize 20th century history, especially the development and growth of the FED and the REAL reasons for the stock market crash and for our involvement in WWI and WWII and what really happened to JFK, why we were in Vietnam or Iraq. But they probably will not get much enlightenment from their socialist textbooks and dumbed down teachers.
The only answer I can see is home schooling or church schools.
This might be a good time for people to get more involved with their PTA's and with their State governments concerning curriculum and textbooks. I saw an article in the Presbyterian Layman Dec 2009,about a course on Bible study through the public schools in Tennessee.The courses were run and paid for by Christian organizations but were totally legal and constitutional.
It is time for America to take back her schools from the "socialist" "fabian" bankers.
We should be looking at our textbooks and discussing them. We don't have a responsible news media anymore, but there must be some format to discuss the socialist takeover of our schools. G Edward Griffin made a film concerning Norman Dodd and his investigation of the "tax exempt foundations" and their activities for the Reese Committee


www.youtube.com...


[edit on 4-2-2010 by m khan]

Read carefully what I have to say. North Carolina is a battleground.

In the months leading up to the 2008 Presidential election there was a late night DJ on the North Carolina State University student radio station that would constantly talk about getting out to vote for Obama. He was Jewish. I know this because he actually talked about being Jewish right on the air. It was no secret. He always pushed Obama. After the election he left. His work was done.

It does not shock me one bit that the liberal politicians are wanting to erase the history of America.

reply to post by searching4truth


Hilarious thing? As taught in school, most of that stuff should be scrapped anyway.

Let's see this period, as taught in MY schools taught me...

there was no history before 1492. None. Nothing. Nobody lived here, or if they did, they were only there for white people to do things to, which is okay because it was back then and that's what all the cool kids were doing.

The colonies were founded on the principles of sovereignty and freedom and valor and liberty and puppies... and certainly weren't a loose group of corporate-owned penal colonies, slave farms, and bank investments.

The "founding fathers" were magnificent men of awesome courage and outstanding moral character who did no wrong, and were out for the benefit of mankind. They were the Quisatz haderach, one and all. They most certainly were not indian-massacring (George Washington), slave-raping (Thomas Jefferson) womanizing (Benjamin Franklin) thugs (Alexander Hamilton) who's ultimate goal was to stop losing their slave-earned profits to the king's taxes and install themselves as gentried nobles in a largely oppressed society.

Andrew Jackson was crazy. This is true, he actually was. Loonier than a whole damn lake of loons on a loon farm watching Looney Tunes.

John Brown was crazy. This isn't true, he was a man who felt that freedom for his fellow man was worth a hell of a lot. Interesting perspective, slaveowners who want freedom aren't hypocrites, but white people who wanted to free the slaves are insane.

Texas is a state. Hoo boy. Here's the thing, a bunch of rich Americans moved into Mexico, decided they didn't like the Mexicans, and then declared themselves an independent state - Texas. Mexico says "Oh like hell" because really, what else would they say, and war ensued. The Mexicans lost (never let a man named Saint Anne lead your army, folks) and then the US annexed Texas - Texas was including a large chunk of northern Mexico as part of itself, which certainly wasn't legal, then the US moved troops into Mexico specifically to precipitate a war, and then we had one and the history books tell us how awesome it was.

The Confederacy seceded for "State's Rights." I grew up in Alabama and I had this fed to me from my first damn history book. "It wasn't about slaved, it was about state's rights!" - unfortunately the state's rights in question were the rights to own slaves. The southern states left the union because an abolitionist president was elected. South Carolina was even kind enough to admit as much

But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them.

That's from the South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of Secession, adopted December 24, 1860. ironically as you can see, South Carolina was in opposition to other state's rights to determine their own stance on slavery while adamant in its own right to handle such affairs.

This was, of course, omitted from my Good Ol Boy history books.

Also the Civil War was presented as two equal and principled and brave powers fighting with all their might for a proud cause each - The north for liberation of the slaves, the south for the rights of its citizens (except blacks and indians and women, of course). The fact is, the north treated runaway slaves who crossed the lines as criminals and spies. Three slave states remained in the union and were not "freed" until the end of the war. In the south, a forced draft had to be taken up - the poor weren't especially keen to fight and die for the rights of rich landowners, after all. There was also a lot of fighting within the south, as troops had to be diverted to quell slave uprisings and recalcitrant sections of the population.. .such as the Independent State of Jones.

After the civil war, the line of teaching goes that all over the south, po' ol' white fokes was put to the back of the bus, and a bunch of evil, dirty "carpetbaggers" and "scallawags" came down to put black people in charge of everything. And of course black people being bjack people, they screwed it up, and so everything that happened to them after reconstruction was all right.

This is also where we're introduced to the Ku Klux Klan, who were portrayed as somewhat heroic. Remember the "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags"? They were always portrayed as disgusting, abominable miscreants out to rape the south... and every history book is careful to focus on the Klan's opposition to these folks. It doesn't outright cheer for the KKK, but it's there just the same.

Skip westward and we're into the Manifest destiny years. Every schoolbook tells about the heroic hardships of the "pioneers" (never "migrants" of course) often with interactive class projects and folksy trail tunes and nevr, ever, EVER any mention of the Western Indians - unless they're attacking one of these caravans of poor innocent Little House on the Prairie white people, of course.

All of this is crap. Garbage. A false history, fed to our kids to indoctrinate them into a jingoistic but poorly-informed patriotism and cult of personality. it's lacking in facts, often outright lies and misleads, and is alienating to the students who aren't of white ancestry.

I don't think this history should be erased - I think it should be corrected to its actual form so that our kids can learn their nation's history, and NOT have to re-learn it in their college history courses.

[edit on 4-2-2010 by TheWalkingFox]

Does anyone know if history pre-1877 is taught in NC at a younger age? I'd imagine by High School children are pretty well inundated with it.

2 things:

1) history after 1877 is more contemporary and relevant today.

2) If ANY state was going to teach about the Reconstruction (1865-1876) it would be North Carolina- that once great hold out for flying the battle flag. Ya'll are misrepresenting something...OP?

The only 2 issues pre-1877 of any relevant/practical interest are:

A) Abraham Lincoln dissolving the writ of habeas corpus.

B) Jackson vs. The Federal Bank and his warnings.

For the life of me I don't understand why teacher in the USA and the UK have ever allowed the governments to take over teaching curriculum.

reply to post by Elliot


When you are a teacher, you are handed a curriculum and told to teach it. In the case of NC, where I teach, the schools are so completely micro-managed that I really believe robots could do my job. We're told what to teach, HOW to teach it, and then the kids take multiple standardized tests to measure how well they learned the lessons. Complete madness, and I've been planning a thread with more detail for the future. Gotta do more research first.
As for taking out the early American history, I will say that there might be a good reason. I can remember spending so much time studying the American Revolution to Civil War, that by the end of the year we had absolutely no time to discuss anything post World War I. Perhaps the curriculum is meant to correct this inbalance? Our students ARE receiving infor about the Revolutionary period, Civil War, etc. in middle school and elementary school. Granted, its not as indepth as a high school course would be, but perhaps this is one of those cases were one has to be sacrificed to teach the other.

reply to post by Elliot


In states like Texas and California, the government has no say in cirriculum. Rather, privately-appointed textbook boards do. These are unelected panels who answer to no authority who arbitrarily decide what books a state's school system will use in a given year. Like most idiots, these people are attracted to bright colors and whiz-bang gizmos, which is why so many schoolbooks in ALL subjects feature color-coded pages, indexes to the index, and a twenty-page introduction to the book that tells you how to use the book.

These people, being idiots, are also easily offended by things that don't meet their political or religious viewpoints. And so, rather than try to cater to right or left or any particular religions, the publishers just do a funky waffle, where they ignore stuff from the left, polish stuff from the right, make everyone look happy and dipped in red-white-and-blue paint, blandly mention religion if it's ever important, and basically vampirize all the life out of hte subject, leaving a land and vacuous, misleading text that tries to present both sides neutrally, even if there are half a dozen sides and some of them are actually in the right.

Since California and texas are two of the country's pmost populous states, publishers basically cater to these textbook panels, always adding more fluff and subtracting more information to keep the idiots happy. Has little to do with the government, in all honesty. The government involvement i nthe school system is mostly managing finances and test standards, not the actual material being taught.