History as it should be taught

 

Zion Press – Eighth grade Social Studies teacher Josh Harris gathered all of his teacher’s edition books he had accumulated over the years, snagged a couple of red pens from the can on his desk and went to work. He knew that this would be a big job, but he was determined to do it right. Setting his coffee cup to the side, he opened the most recent book and began reading. As he had been teaching for so long without a real change in books or curriculum, he could scan the info pretty quickly and move on. This time, however, would be a bit different as he planned on editing the books this go round.

                First up, the American Revolution. For so long, he had taught the American Revolution was a good thing, getting out from under British rule, a country that wasn’t even on the same continent as North America. Now he knew better. Taking his red pen, he made notes in the margins indicating that the revolutionaries had been disillusioned young men, stretching their wings like so many youth before them before settling in to realize their parents actually did know something. While we named ourselves the United States of America, we should have stuck with England 2.0, or the New New England, since the Northeast had already claimed New England.

                Another era ripe for editing was the Civil War. In this day and age, who would believe that anyone would agree slavery was acceptable? He made notes that they were actually before their time, disagreeing over climate change.

                Next up, the unit on economics, with a hint of finance. Now that he knew better, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt needed to be portrayed as the greedy men they were, instead of those who set up philanthropies. Nobody needed that much money, then or now.

                After clearing up a few more chapters, Josh put his pen down, exhausted. He would continue this task tomorrow, after he participated in a peaceful protest this evening. Grabbing his bat, he went to his car.

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