It’s gotten better, at least. My school had modern textbooks when I was growing up, but I remember one of my middle school history teachers, who was old enough to have taught a Black school during segregation (and was, naturally, scathing about the cruelty and hypocrisy of segregation despite being a white guy), talking about the kind of things textbooks used to peddle as recently as the 90s.
I grew up in a liberal city and once I got to middle school, they started teaching all the ugly stuff in US history (I went to middle school and high school around 2016 to 2021, years slightly obfuscated for privacy reasons)
Can confirm, went to elementary school in the 90s, and the lunch room had a mural of the Land Rush in it. The Land Rush was the day the government went “sike” and fucked over the Trail of Tears victims even more.
We even had a special day every year where they gave us bag lunches and we went out to the playground to larp stealing land from the natives.
Edit: wiki link for what I’m talking about lol
Second edit, in case you think I was being hyperbolic about larping as a small child, I present a newspaper article showing they’re still fucking doing it in 2013: https://archive.is/nz8uQ
talking about the kind of things textbooks used to peddle as recently as the 90s.
As recently as the '90s? Or as recently as last year.
The Florida State Board of Education’s new standards [as of 2023] includes controversial language about how “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”
As recently as the 90s in my area, I should have said. I… don’t doubt that many areas are still fucking terrible on the matter, both by use of old textbooks and by whatever the fuck the GOP is pushing in red states.
My best history teacher had me read Lies My Teacher Told Me outside of class and compare it to what we were learning. Finished it in a week (didn’t have any major gigs in February) and then spent the rest of the week just sitting there trying to figure out what the distance between the two positions was. It was a lot to rattle around in my empty skull. I think I got his point, but he refused to tell me what it was. Good dude, he was. Is. I dunno, he could still be around.
It’s gotten better, at least. My school had modern textbooks when I was growing up, but I remember one of my middle school history teachers, who was old enough to have taught a Black school during segregation (and was, naturally, scathing about the cruelty and hypocrisy of segregation despite being a white guy), talking about the kind of things textbooks used to peddle as recently as the 90s.
He was a cool guy.
I grew up in a liberal city and once I got to middle school, they started teaching all the ugly stuff in US history (I went to middle school and high school around 2016 to 2021, years slightly obfuscated for privacy reasons)
Can confirm, went to elementary school in the 90s, and the lunch room had a mural of the Land Rush in it. The Land Rush was the day the government went “sike” and fucked over the Trail of Tears victims even more.
We even had a special day every year where they gave us bag lunches and we went out to the playground to larp stealing land from the natives.
Edit: wiki link for what I’m talking about lol
Second edit, in case you think I was being hyperbolic about larping as a small child, I present a newspaper article showing they’re still fucking doing it in 2013: https://archive.is/nz8uQ
Okay, Boomer
As recently as the '90s? Or as recently as last year.
As recently as the 90s in my area, I should have said. I… don’t doubt that many areas are still fucking terrible on the matter, both by use of old textbooks and by whatever the fuck the GOP is pushing in red states.
My best history teacher had me read Lies My Teacher Told Me outside of class and compare it to what we were learning. Finished it in a week (didn’t have any major gigs in February) and then spent the rest of the week just sitting there trying to figure out what the distance between the two positions was. It was a lot to rattle around in my empty skull. I think I got his point, but he refused to tell me what it was. Good dude, he was. Is. I dunno, he could still be around.